Cardinal Cross Country Comes to a Close

By Dylan Monahan

Since August 16, the Cardinal cross country team has worked hard to achieve their personal goals. From the start, the team had lofty goals. By the end of the season, their hard work had paid off. Junior Jon Miller and the Lady Cardinals ran at the state tournament this year on November 2, 2013. The girls and Miller travelled to Wamego to compete at this meet.

“At the beginning of the season, our slogan was to ‘build our strong!’ The biggest change in how strong we are is mentally! When kids talk about going out and running 8 miles, it is something they look forward to,” said Coach Paul Boone.

Even though the course is not one that is near by, the team is still quite familiar with it. The girls and Miller were able to use this knowledge to their advantage at this challenging, season-ending race.

“The Wamego course is one that can be crowded, so it is important to start well, but not get too carried away as it is an uphill start. That is always challenging to be fast but not too fast,” Boone added.

Miller ran individually at the state race, but that didn’t affect him in any way, coming in 14th of the 102 best runners in the state. This was Miller’s second time competing at the state race. Last year Miller finished the race at 56th.

The girls, on the other hand, ran as a whole team. The fastest finisher for the girls was freshman Ashleigh Hicks, coming in at 47th. She was followed by three consecutive Lady Cards. Senior Kelsey Balluch finished 67th, senior Anna Brown finished 68th, and freshman Halle Norris finished 69th.

The Cardinals cross country team had their goals this season. State is definitely a goal that all young runners have during their high school career. Though the season has come to a close this year, the team will continue running to accomplish their goals for the next season.