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By Annie Myers

The cross country team competed in their first meet as a part of the EKL on Thursday, Sept. 1 at Johnson County Community College. According to sophomore Darlene Yanez, the meet caused nerves and excitement. “At first it was nerve-racking and I was so overwhelmed and when they were like ‘OK, on your marks, get set, go’ I really didn’t think about it, I just went and got it going," Yanez said.

At the first cross country meet of the season, the boys team placed first, and the girls team took second in the Shawnee Mission South Quad on Thursday, Sept. 1. Both teams raced two miles on the Johnson County Community College field.

Led by junior Britton Nelson with a time of 12:08.78, the girls team came 12 points shy of Shawnee Mission South. Meanwhile, the boys scored 25 points and four runners placed in the top five, including sophomore Greg Haynes who claimed second. Amongst Shawnee Mission South, the team also competed against Olathe South and Olathe Northwest.

Since Aug. 15, the teams have been running at least six days a week, and Nelson considered herself well-prepared for the first meet of the season. According to Nelson, the team completed a two-mile run to prepare for the first meet.

“It was my second cross country season, so I know what it’s like,” Nelson said. “We’ve been running almost ever since track stopped; we started up at the beginning of the summer, and we’ve been going hard ever since.”

Before the race, Haynes said he was nervous, but “felt more confident and was ready to race” when he got up to the starting line. Haynes finished the race in 10:36.10.

“[During the race] I was thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to pull this out?’ because [junior] Gavin [Overbeck] had such a far lead, and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pull it out,” Haynes said. “I held my position and went for the opportunity, and I took off.”