In Cross Country, Running is our Mission

Post date: Oct 5, 2016 5:37:18 PM

By: Abbie Schmidt, Co Editor-in-Chief

Posted October 5th, 2016

If you’ve never been in Cross Country, you might be wondering how it all works. How everyone gets scored, how meets work, and how long they practice. I was surprised to find out all of the aforementioned. I spoke with John Strand, a coach for SHS Cross Country. He told me that meets (sometimes called invites) happen once a week as a 3.1 mile race (5K). Meets usually consist of 4 total races: Boys JV, Boys Varsity, Girls JV, and Girls Varsity. Scoring takes the top 5 finishers on each team and adds their score. The team with the lowest score wins. If there is a tie, the 6th place finisher is the deciding factor. Strand describes Cross Country as “a unique blend of an individual and team sport”. He said, “runners are able to compete against themselves from week to week, even if they do not contribute to the team score”.

The team practices every day after school from 2:45-4:45. “Practice mostly consists of running (obviously), but we tailor the type of running in order to activate and train specific muscle and respiratory groups. On average, we probably run 6-8 miles each day,” said Strand.

When asked how the season is going, Strand replied, “The season is going great. We have some great individual runners, and our team is rapidly improving as well. Kids are having fun and working hard. We have found some success at meets as well. We have even won a few meets.”