Runners ready for State Meet
The boys and girls cross country teams have both reached the State Championships for the first time since 2013. They will compete Saturday morning with the girls starting at 10 a.m. and the boys racing at 10:40 in Round Rock.
The boys are returning to the State Meet for the first time as a team since 2017. The girls, who have won three state titles, are returning for the first time since 2013.
“When I was an assistant coach here, it always just really burned in me that I wanted to get the program back to the way it used to be – a program that was no stranger to State,” girls coach Cody Cook said. “We haven’t had a team go since 2013. So for a program with such a storied history like we have, it’s very, very important to me that the program gets back to that level of success.”
The teams tried to keep their normal routines and workouts this week, while giving runners time to recover from any injuries or soreness from last weekend’s Regional Meet. The coaches are hoping a good week of workouts will help lower the anxiety of the runners.
“One thing an athlete can do is overthink, and when you get nervous it’s wasted energy,” boys assistant coach Kim Ackerman said. “If they just get there and run to their ability and not try to do too much… There’s gonna be fast feet everywhere. It’s not our job to keep up with fast fast people. In reality, run your PR.”
Cook expects the same from the girls.
“I want to go attack State,” he said. “I don’t want to be content with being at State. I want to really go in there and go attack that course. It’s a very challenging race. The girls are incredibly fast and so I’ve seen girls attack the course and I have seen them let the moment get too big for them and they don’t attack the course.
“What I want to see us to do as a team is not let’s take it too big for us and actually go attack it and go to just get know.”
