This year’s cross country team boasts experience, depth, and most importantly, talent. The boys team has 15 runners, two of which are seniors, and the girls team consists of seven runners, four of which are seniors.
This year’s coaching staff will look a little different than last as Hallie McMurdie joins head coach Julie Tisone as an assistant coach. Captain and senior Kate Holston is thankful for the addition of Coach Hallie.
“Coach Hallie helps Coach Julie set up for practice,” Holston said.
Setting up and planning for practice is no easy task as it takes time, effort, and energy.
“She also helps us with different approaches to our running, so she’s really helpful in helping us correct our form and kind of just seeing things from a different perspective,” Holston said.
Another change that most sports at Rockbridge County including the cross country team are experiencing is the adjustment to a new conference. Previously, every team except for boys and girls lacrosse competed in the Valley District, but this year, teams will be a part of the Shenandoah District.
This change in conferences will give the cross country team an opportunity to get to race against different high school cross country teams that they might not have been able to before. Senior and cross country captain Trent Cash is excited and ready to race against new teams in the conference.
“I’m just excited to meet my competition. It’s always pretty fun to just hang out with people that like doing what you do, even if they’re competitors,” Cash said.
The team worked hard during the long and hot summer days to help prepare for the upcoming season. To make it more fun, the team did various activities, which included running to Sweet Things to get ice cream. Junior Hannah Ivins had fun eating ice cream and getting to hang out with her friends,
“It’s really fun because you get to run all the way down to Sweet Things in town. I mean, you get to see people in town that you know, but you also get to run and talk with your friends as you’re doing it. Then getting ice cream is just a fun thing,” Ivins said.
Running downtown and getting ice cream as a team has been a cross country tradition for years.
“You get to talk about what flavors you got. But then as you’re walking back up, which you walk back up because you just ate ice cream, you
get to just talk and hang out with your friends,” Ivins said.
Additionally, cross country team members such as sophomore Leif Guse, junior Tyler Ludtke, and junior Oscar McClung all have raced in national competitions before at the Adidas and Nike national running competitions. McClung shares how this has benefited his season for this year.
“It gave me access to better competition at a higher level,” McClung said. “It motivated me to train harder this summer because we have a chance at winning districts this year and hopefully being competitive at regionals, states, and nationals.”
The Wildcats are poised to have a great season this year and will hopefully make it farther than region
als which is where the team fell last year. The next race for the team is a district meet on Sept. 24 in Alleghany. The only meet hosted by the team will be held on Oct. 1 in Natural Bridge.
