Junior Carley Rhodes throws on a tank top, brushes her teeth and grabs her running shoes. It’s the last week of May and school has been out for a week, but she gets in the car and makes the short drive to Bringle Lake Park.
She wanted to go back to bed, but she needed to start preparing for the upcoming cross country season.
Hoping to get different results from last year, she and the rest of the team started training earlier than ever.
And after four months of work, they clinched third place at the district cross country meet, qualifying the entire girls team for regionals for the first time in six years. And competed in regionals Oct. 21, finishing 17th. In cross country, the top three teams at the district meet advance to the regional meet.
“When we ran at district, we got together in a huddle and watched Coach Chatseen’s phone, say that we got third place, and we all started jumping — everyone was crying,” junior Jolie Mascoe said.
Advancing to regionals was proof that starting to train earlier was worth it.
“We started working. We had a week off on the last day of school, and then we ran and we’ve been running ever since,” she said, “So I think just starting to put the work in early really pays off.”
There wasn’t just one difference though — they had a different mindset.
“I guess in the summer, we just, we all knew that we wanted to go to regionals this year,” junior Avery Benich said, “so we pushed extra hard and worked together as a team.”