Cross Country looks to finish their season strong

From Issue 2

By Maclain Kennedy|October 13, 2017

     At 6am when most people are still asleep, you can hear the quiet footsteps of the Jackson Prep cross country team. Since this past summer, the team has been building towards the season, working hard in the summer both in the morning and evening.

     Meredith Lange has been helping with Jackson Prep Cross Country for four years now, but this year is her first as head coach. Coach Lange says, “They [girls] are figuring out how to balance working together as a team and being competitive and reaching their individual goals.”

     This season, Coach Lange is joined by Coach Daniel Burnett, a current MC runner. This is Burnett’s first year coaching at Prep. He says “It’s been great. I was extremely nervous when coach Lang asked me to be her assistant, but glad I’m making the adjustments and that our athletes are in a good place right now.”

     The first meet was August 28th at Choctaw Trails. Runners trekked through, despite the muddy conditions. This year, the girls raced a 4k, which is a half of a mile more than what they raced last year. The boys are again racing a 5k this year.

     For the girls, Eliza Burnham, a junior at Prep, came in the top ten with a time of 17:23. Eliza says, “I have been working hard all of this summer to get to that level, and I hope that I can see some good results this season.” Not far behind her was Havens Smith, an eighth grader. Her time was 17:30. The girls got 4th place out of __ teams.

As for the boys, Alex Stradinger, a sophomore, finished in 14th place with a time of 19:30. The boys team got 5th place out of 19 teams.

Coach Daniel Burnett encourages one of the runners before the race.

Since then, Prep has attended three cross country meets, two at Choctaw Trails and one at PCS. On September 23rd, the top runners for the boys and girls team went to Pensacola to race in a 5k. 13 runners attended this meet, and afterward they got to take a trip to the beach for the day. Greyton Ray said, “The Gulf Coast XC Stampede was one of the more fun meets I have been to. Each runner went out and competed hard, and we all came back with new PR’s, which just added to the fun”.