Freshman Miles Atherton ran a 5k at the new meet.
Freshman Miles Atherton ran a 5k race at the new meet.

On Sept. 26 the cross country team ran at the Pacers Running DC Cross Country Invitational for the first time.

With over 50 teams at the event, and two previous years of races under their belt, the team had a fair amount of competition.

Distance coach Darrell General  implemented increasingly strenuous workouts during practices for the returning and newer long distance runners to ultimately preparing the runners for events like the Pacers meet.

“Since the back baseball field got redone we can do more tempo stuff,” General said. “The meet went pretty well, we had good results and we are getting ready for conferences coming up.”

According to senior Justin McFaul, the changes have made practices harder and more intense, but the payoff with lower finishing times and better meet preparation makes it worth it.

“Since the team is so strong this year, coach has been taking our training to the next level,” McFaul said. “This has definitely been helping everyone improve and perform.”

For the first time competing at the Pacers Invitational, the team left a great lasting first impression.
“We had lots of people placed in the top 20, and we got a medal in each event,” McFaul said. “The sophomore girls won their event,”
Senior Sarah Smith agreed that as the season draws nearer to ending, the more apparent the results of the increased intensity of the practices.
“You can tell that everyone can see the end of the season coming and everyone is motivated to improve,” Smith said. “It also told us how close to a state title we are, we just got to keep working hard.”