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The first few weeks of practice have been full of hard work. A lot of miles, sweat and maybe even a few tears. All of this hard work will pay off further down the road when we start competing at some of the bigger meets! These early meets are still just as important however and the first two meets have gone great! This season North Dakota finally made the switch to having the girls run equal distance to the guys, a 5K (3.1 miles). I personally am really excited for this switch. It makes it easier to compare yourself to other people in the nation and even the boys on your own team (which may create a little friendly rivalry between some of the boys and girls)
Jamestown, our first meet, was a tricky first course for some of our new runners and still difficult for our veterans. With the uneven ground, narrow path, and sharp turns, we had many of our runners fall during their races. They still all managed to get back up and into the race, which is not always the easiest task, so props to them! It was a good learning experience for when we return to this course in October for the state meet. The meet was also a little bittersweet for me and my fellow seniors as it sunk in that this was the beginning of our last year together! This final week before school started there was no meet so we were able to get some really good training in. This included speed workouts on Tuesday (400s for the newer runners & 600s for the older ones) and Thursday (800s for the youngs and 1000s for the olds on the hilly dike) and a long run on Saturday. Today we went to our second meet in Moorhead. The humid weather got to quite a few of our runners but we still had everyone fight through and managed to get a lot of people up at the awards. Seeing people like Aaron Springer (varsity), Ryan Meyer and Adam Arnold (middle school), Maia Jackson, Valerie Doze, and Megan Peck (JV), and Mikayla Weiss (middle school) get some of their first medals was so so exciting! Hopefully this will carry over to this Saturday when we get to race there again and I'm sure we'll see some PRs. With school starting and sleeping/eating schedules getting messed up hopefully everyone is able to adapt quickly! -Karly Ackley - Senior Captain Saturday Aug 20th, 2016 the Knights started the 2016 Cross Country season at Jamestown. In North Dakota varsity girls now run a 5k, the change of distance didn't change the outcome for the Central girls, they came out and won the first meet with 55 points over Fargo Davies who had 65. Karly, Alexis, and Rachel T came out and showed everyone that they had trained hard all summer by placing 1st, 3rd, and 4th respectively. Eighth grader Sophia placed in the top 5 (22nd place overall) for the Knights for the first time in her career. Aislinn returned to the top 5 for us with her 25th overall place.
Senior Richie led the varsity boys for the first time, after the graduation of Leif and David, with a 13th overall finish, followed by Seniors Kohlton and Aaron, who both had PR's. Emery returned to the the top 5, after 2015 being an injury filled season for him. New comer to the team, Sophomore Josh, ran a very good first 5k to be the boys 5th runner. The boys finished 9th out of 41 teams, a good start to a season with a lot of new boys running varsity this season. The JV boys finished 3rd out of 35 teams, and did it with four middle school runners! Eighth graders Ryan and Adam lead the charge to the chute by placing 20th and 21st, followed by Senior Cedric (37th), 7th grader Joe (42nd), and 8th grader Jake (46th). There were a total of 189 runners in the junior varsity race. The JV girls were led by 8th grader Silje (8th place) and had a lot of new runners who were figuring out how to race. We are looking forward to seeing how this group develops throughout the season. While most of the 2016 Cross Country team was in Bemidji for our camping trip, our own Sophmore Alexis Roehl as in Sacramento running in the USATF National Junior Olympics in both the 1500m and 3000m races. Alexis had qualified for the championships by placing in the top 3 at a qualifying meet in Mankato, MN. For the first time Alexis has to run prelims in the 1500m at a meet. She handled it well and qualified for finals!
The bunch of us were lucky enough to watch Alexis run in the finals of the 3000m on my computer as the race was streamed live. We all cheered and watched her earn all-american honors by placing 5th over all!! Top 8 finishers in the finals earn all-american honors. Alexis also finished 5th in the the 1500m finals, earning her 2nd all-american honors! The whole team is very proud of how Alexis ran and represented us in the Junior Olympics!! |
AuthorVarious people will write about what is happening with the teams. Coach Allan and captains will be regular contributors. Alumni and parents are also welcome to submit entries. Archives
May 2020
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