Members of Quantico Middle⁄High’s girls’ cross country team, Hayleigh, ninth-grader; Alyssa, eighth-grader; and Melinda, eleventh-grader;endure the cold rainy conditions in their ownpersonal way.
It’s over. After more than 3,680 miles in 47 days of practice and 10 meets for an average of 94 hours of running per person. Quantico Middle⁄High School’s cross country season ended Friday on the cold, wet and slippery slopes of a Woodberry Forest, Va., 5K course at the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association State Championships.
‘‘These were the worse conditions we’ve run in this season,” said Joe, the Warrior’s boy’s team captain. ‘‘The first two races turned the course into mud.”
Tight turns and hills under these conditions challenged the best runners.
‘‘We started downhill, and I could hear runners slipping and falling,” added the high school senior. ‘‘It was hard to get any traction, which added time to everyone’s run.”
Joe finished first for Quantico despite the conditions with a time of 20:13.37, helping his team to secure 19th place out of25 teams.
‘‘We did very well for such a small team,” said Josh Thom, the team’s coach. ‘‘I am very pleased with the results knowing how hard they have worked all season.”
The girl’s team managed a 9th place finish out of 15 teams, and had the privilege of running the last race with virtually nothing left but muck for footing.
‘‘That course was slick,” said Warriors Girl’s Team Captain, Emily, a junior and veteran of two seasons with the team. ‘‘Girls were wiping out on every turn.”
Emily finished 6th for Quantico with a time of 26:04.20. Melinda crossed the line first for the Warriors with a time of 24:15.68.
‘‘There’s a lot of friendly competition on the team,” Emily said. ‘‘It seems we take turns coming in first. We try to catch each other as well as other runners.”
‘‘It’s a team sport, but individual as well.” said Thom. ‘‘Each runner has improved quite a bit from the first practices back in August. We only had 10 returning runners.”
That meant the majority of the 29-person team, 13 boys and 16 girls, hadn’t run cross country before. Yet despite this, the team did extremely well during the regular season, even taking first place in the girl’s race last week, Thom said.
‘‘Even though the weather turned nasty, I reminded the team this was it; the last run of the season,” Joe said. ‘‘Because it was the States, there were a lot of people there.”
‘‘Everywhere on the course there were people cheering,” Emily agreed. ‘‘It was motivating to hear people say ‘look out, Quantico’s right behind you.’”
‘‘We knew this was our last chance to put out,” Joe added. ‘‘The beginning of the race was congested, so there seemed to be lots of elbows and attempts to pass. There were places it bottlenecked and a lot of unintentional physical contact.”
Both captains agreed that the run proved the most miserable and motivating.
‘‘It seems the more difficult the circumstance, the more satisfying it is to overcome it,” Emily boasted. ‘‘I’ll be back next year for more.”
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