At the 2013 State Cross Country meet the Knights produced 3 All State Runners, 11 PR's, and both teams bringing home State Trophies, the first time since 2001 that both teams have stood on the podium together.  The Boys captured 4th place and the Girls 5th.  

The boys raced first at noon, and Senior Camron Roehl ran a tough race, placing 4th overall. Soph Leif Larsen earned his first All State Honor with a 12 place finish.  Junior Chris Caraballo was the 3rd Central boy across the finish in 33rd place, followed by Senior Keelan Murphy 53rd, and Senior Ben Wood 57th rounded out the top 5 Knights.  Soph Julian Cavanugh continued to improve and PR by 45 secs to finish 63rd to show he will be ready to step into next years top 5.  Soph David Hettich was right behind Julian in 68th, Senior Cody Rowley 100th, and Junior Shay Doward 125th rounded out all the Knights that finished the race.

At 12:45 pm the gun sounded again and the girls took the course.  Freshman Karly Ackley, tied the school record (again) this year by finishing 5th over all in  a time of 14:52.  Sisters Soph Grace and 7th grader Alexis Roehl used a surge over the last 800m to finish 21st and 24th, just missing All State Honors.  Eighth grader Rachel Torrey ran her best time of the year to finish 35th, followed by Rachel Cox to give the girls their first state trophy since 2004.  Seventh grader Mandy Williamson used a 30 sec PR to finish 53rd, next running together was Soph Maggie Powell 91st, and Freshman Meghan Allan 95th.  Eighth grader Brenna Bertsch 107th and Freshman Heather Barth 119th ran great races to show that the Central girls will be a team to contend with for years to come with all ten state runners being underclassman.

Both teams came into the state meet with big goals. Goals that were raised over the season.  In July when the team sat around the campfire and voiced their thoughts on what the team could complish in October, it was mainly finish in the top 3 at EDC and hopefully get a trophy at the state meet.  During the season, those goals were raised to bigger dreams.  This season the team exceed those goals that were set in July, but came short of the newer, higher expectations.  It was hard to fall short of our new team goals, but it wasn't wrong to raise the desire to improve and achieve more than orginally thought we could achieve.  How else do you challange yourself if you don't expect more?  How you do feed that desire to get to the next level if you don't push past what you orginally thought was difficult?  This will be a season that will be remembered as on of the programs most successful, but even so I think it will be a season that will be looked back as one that raises the program to new level of success.

Thursday night the girls team had one last get together.  They gathered at Jordyn's house, had pizza, played games, hung out, and got very little sleep.  It's things like this that they will remember for years to come. Not what place they got in Northwood, but being part of a team and spending that time together.  

I don't remember the places at I got at individual meets, but I do remember running in downpours with my teammates, camping trips, talking about music, going out for pizza, movies, telling jokes on runs, and helping each other through tough times.  Everyone one of the groomsmen in my wedding (other than family) were teammates I had run cross country with.  I made friendships that I still have today.  

Those friendships formed, memories made is the best part of being part of a team.  It is one of the many reasons I coach.  I want to provide other young people, and my own children, the benefits of being part of a team.  

After having have a few days to reflect upon what the boys and girls teams accomplished at the EDC Meet in Grand Forks I thought I would share them.  

The day went by with a blur, I really didn't get a chance to absorb the races, how well we did, or even notice the number of  friends, family, and parents that braved another cold rainy day for the meet. I spent the morning helping set up the course, coaches meeting, and worrying about the deteriorating course conditions.  

Before I knew it the middle school girls and then boys ran their races.  I was happy to see how hard our future runners ran in the conditions, and how they had smiles on their faces for their last race of 2013.

Our girls had big goals, and as I saw them warming up, they seemed calm and extremely ready for the challenge. The last things I told them was to run some of the corners wide, because of the slippery conditions and to remember the words "I CAN".  The girls followed the plan we have used all year, ran the first mile at your pace, and work hard after that. It was so much fun watching Karly win the 1st EDC individual title ever for the Knights. As each Central girl ran past me, I could see the determination on their faces.  Cheering for them over the last 200 meters I was so proud of our girls as they charged home fighting for each and every place.  

The boys were already lining up for their race as the girls were finishing.  The boys were running a complete team for the first time since Northwood.  They have battled through so many things this year, most of them out of their control.  They have fought through setbacks of injured hip flex, asthma attacks, weeks of sickness, and spraining an ankle. I could see more nerves on the boys faces and also a grim determination, I knew they were going to give me everything they had.  After the race we knew they hadn't accomplished the goals they had set, but they went out and gave everything, no coach could ask for more!

I have to admit, I did go peek at the team results when I was talking to DeVillers from the Grand Forks Herald. I never shared those results with the team, I wanted them to feel the excitement of what they had done! I was extremely proud to get get the chance to hand out the EDC All-Conference awards to our eight runners.  2007 was the last time GFC had that many All-Conference runners.  

As for the double coach of the year award, it is nice to be recognized by your peers for your TEAM's performances.  Eric Polries and Steve Johnson both deserve credit for those awards as well, but it truly is the athletes that win it. It's their hard work, their hours of doing the little things like strength workouts, stretching, and icing.  They battle through sore legs, knee's, hips, and weather that goes from high 90's to low 40's and still perform when the gun goes off.  It's their dedication that makes us coaches look good.

In July sitting around the fire at the annual camping trip the girls team set a goal of becoming EDC Champions. At the first meet of the season the girls ran against the defending EDC Champions, Davies, and lost by 26 points. Saturday, Oct 12th, they lined up in the mud at Lincoln Park, in Grand Forks, and accomplished their goal and defeated the 10 teams in the EDC by scoring 40 points, 6 less than Davies.  It is the first title for the girls since 2003.  Freshman Karly Ackley captured the first individual title ever in GF Girls Cross Country history, with a winning time of 15:06, 35 seconds in front of second place.  The girls were tied with Davies after each had four runners crossed the line. Eight grader, Rachel Torrey, captured all conference honors with her with her 16th place, and more importantly finished 6 places in front of Davies number 5 runner.  Also earning all-conference honors were Grace Roehl, 6th place, Alexis Roehl 7th place, and Rachel Cox 10th place.  

The boys team, who have battled through numerous injuries,  struggled to a 3rd place finish at the EDC meet.  Senior Camron Roehl raced a great race to finish 2nd, Soph Leif Larsen continued his strong season with a 5th place finish.  Senior Keelan Murphy also earned All-Conference honors with a 19th place finish.  Junior Chris Caraballo, running just his second race after missing a month from a injury, just missed All-Conference honors with 23rd place.  Senior Ben Wood, was the Knights 5th runner, in 35th place.  Soph Julian Cavanagh continued his late season surge and ran his best race of the season finishing 41st.  

Both teams will go back to work on Monday and prepare themselves over the next two weeks to be ready to compete at the State Meet.  

The rain came down heavy, the wind blew at 20 mph, the course had muddy puddles through out it, and the Central Knight Cross Country runners couldn't be happier and more excited to race.  At the starting line of each division words of dispair were muttered, but the Knights cheered for the weather and then most importantly went out and raced hard.  

The middle school athletes started out the day with some great races, seventh grader Cole placed 6th and raced to new PR in 12:29 over the 3k course.  Alexis placed 8th in the girls race and was 1 sec of her PR, and Emily K. placed 13th with a new PR of 14:42. 

A large group of Central JV girls stepped to the line with more than just this race against other teams on their mind as they were racing each other for spots on the Central team that travels to Valley City in three weeks for the state meet.  Meghan, who coming off an injury that cost her weeks of training, jumped to the lead and never gave it up to win her first JV race in a season best time of 17:20.  Emily C., also battling an injury, placed 6th and PR by 40 secs in 18:15.  McKenzie, Heather, and Maia helped the girls JV team to a first place finish with a score of 33.

The JV Boys also had the same goal in mind as the girls, battling for those coveted 10 varisty spots that get to travel to the state meet.  Shay stepped up and showed by fighting for the lead during the race how badly he wants to go state and finished a season high 3rd place.  New comer Julien, running in only his second race, finshed 7th, followed by Thomas, Eryx, and Ryan to lead the JV boys to a second place team finish.

Freshman Karly took the lead in the varsity girls race and never gave it up over the sloppy course.  The top five varsity girls placed in the top 14.  Alexis in 3rd, Grace 5th, Rachel C. 8th and Rachel T. 14th.  The girls ran a great race and beat rival West Fargo by 16, to win the meet.  It was a turn around from early this year when West Fargo beat our girls by 37 in Northwood.  

Camron followed Karly's example and took the lead from the gun and raced to a 21 second win over Shanley's Seb Startz.  The boys put 5 boys in the top 18 for a 43 to 62 win over West Fargo to win the meet.  Leif continued his great season with 3rd place followed by Keelan in 10th, David in 11th.  Chris running in his first race back since a hip flexer injury at Northwood, placed 18th. 

Our home meet was also the 14th annual "Traveling Fork" battle between Red River and Central.  The "Traveling Fork" goes to the lowest combined score of the Varisty boys and girls teams.  Central scored a record low 76 points to win the award over Red Rivers  194 combined score.