Cubs Cross Country team competes at Regionals

The Olney Cubs Cross Country team made it to regionals! The Cubs ran hard at Grand Prairie and placed 21st out of 25 teams.

“I feel that we did the best we could’ve done at regionals,” Adrian Gonzalez, junior, said.

“It was a really grassy course, which made it harder to go as fast because of there being less traction than there would be on concrete, which was all the more reason to push harder. But overall, I think we did pretty decently. But we will do even better next year!”

Many of the athletes set a personal record at regionals, like Ava Stewart, Halee Craven, and Adrian Gonzalez.

“The team as a whole improved consistently throughout the year and achieved faster times at every race,” Stewart, sophomore, said. “We just need to keep the consistent momentum going for next year to get us to state next season.” The runners also had goals they wanted to achieve by the end of the season.

“I had two goals this year, of which I was only able to complete one,” Gonzalez said. “The first goal, which I didn’t get, was to run a 5k in under 20 minutes, which is at a 6:25 mile pace. My best time for the season was at regionals and was 20:24…The second goal that I had this year was to beat Jaxx at a cross country meet this year. I said to him, ‘One of my main goals this year is to beat you in at least one race.’ At every race, he had beaten me by at least 30 seconds, that was, until regionals, where I got out really fast…and ended up beating him by almost 21 seconds.

Jaxx, if you’re reading this, sorry about that, but I’m going to be doing my best to continue to do that next season.”

Both the coaches and the athletes are proud of how this cross country season ended.

“It was a fun season and everyone put in so much work and effort into it,” Stewart said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how far we can get together next season and hopefully get to compete at state.”

This season was a learning experience for all the runners, and they’re already preparing for next year.

“I found a sense of peace in a sport that I hated with every ounce of my being in the 8th grade, and for some weird reason I decided to stick with my freshman year,” Gonzalez said. “Next season I am looking forward to improving my times and speeds to hopefully make it to the state meet; which according to this year’s times, I would need to improve by around three minutes, which will be tough, but with enough work and determination, I believe it’s possible.”