Cross country places second and third at EKL championship
The boys team placed second and the girls placed third on Thursday, Oct. 12
October 13, 2017
The boys cross country team placed second and the girls team placed third overall at the EKL meet at Johnson County Community College on Thursday, Oct. 12.
Going into the meet, the girls team focused specifically on beating St. James, according to senior Britton Nelson, who placed ninth individually.
“We really wanted to go for St. James because they’re our big competition at state, and this is only the second time we have ran against them,” Nelson said. “We didn’t do as well as we were hoping because it just wasn’t everyone’s day and that contributed to our third place finish.”
Senior Tyler Coad, who placed 20th individually, believes the boys team performed well as a whole.
“The team ran very hard and we did what we were supposed to do,” Coad said. “There were some things we could have done better, but overall we all ran really hard.”
Despite a slower start to the race, Nelson received motivation from her teammate to lead to a strong finish.
“I think I could’ve started out faster [in the race], and I think the rest of [the girls team] would say the same,” Nelson said. “But [sophomore Morgan Koca] helped push me, and I just tried to keep pushing forward to get to the next girl.”
After being unable to compete for part of the season due to an injury, Coad is encouraged by his performance at the meet.
“I felt pretty good about [the race],” Coad said. “I ran a new season best and I’m starting to feel back to 100 percent again.”
Nelson believes the race allowed the team to continue to learn and prepare to reach their goals in the upcoming regional and state meets.
“This race was a learning experience. I think we can choose to take from this more motivation going into the next two races,” Nelson said. “We are going to continue to work and fight hard for our goal of state.”
The team will compete next in the regional meet on Saturday, Oct. 21.
