The start of the new school year is here, which commences the start of the new cross country season. The team wasted no time getting into the swing of things, from practicing at 5:30 am to escape the heat or running on Saturday mornings. The team has worked incredibly hard for the upcoming season.
On August 30th, the team got ready for their first meet of the season. While in past seasons the first meet was usually held at Carbondale, this year the meet was held at Carterville. For the first time in years, Carterville had a home meet at the high school level. While the junior high cross country team has a home meet yearly the high school did not until this year. The course being on school grounds gave the team a significant advantage because they were able to run the course before the meet. By the time the meet had come the team was ready to run.
The girls team ran first, bright and early at 9 am, with sophomore Lane Sambursky placing first in the race. “It felt amazing to win the race. It makes me excited to see how the rest of the season will go.” Sambursky said after finishing her race.
Junior Lyla Seaman followed close behind in third place. Both girls ran the three mile course in just under twenty minutes, a truly wonderful time to start their next season. The new freshmen to the team had a chance to experience their first competitive 3 mile course, a big difference to the shorter courses that some of them ran in junior high. The top female freshman runner was Claire Samples with a time of 23:36. When asked about her first high school race Claire responded with “It was definitely a hard race but I had a lot of fun running it” The second top freshman runner was Kyla Waller with a time of 25:26. The girls team placed second overall, a great way to start off the season.
The boys team raced after the girls. Senior August Anderson was the top runner for the boys race in second place with a time of 15:53. Followed closely behind was freshman Alex DeRuntz in third place with a time of 16:20. “It was a very close chase at the end but I managed to hold him off.” DeRuntz said.
Six seconds later senior James Samples crossed the finish line and took fourth place. The top male freshman was Ethan Shelby with a time of 20:19 and the second top runner was Chase Dinga with a time of 22:50. With the top three runners on the boys team placing top five, that allowed for the team to take first place and end the first meet of the year with an amazing finish.
Both teams finished the meet with amazing places, big smiles, and high hopes for the rest of the season. While they continue to train for the upcoming meets, they have a new trophy to place in the case at CHS.
