10/31/24 Highlight: Varsity Cross Country
By SAM ALTMAN and V MURDAYA
In the past several weeks, the cross country team has racked up numerous race wins across several meets. Most recently, the team took home a narrow victory against Andover.
Alongside these successes, numerous runners on the team have seen rapid improvements in their personal best times. Prep Ved Reddy mentioned one reason for this quick improvement. “I think that overall for all of our meets, we have really good preparation. Our practices are set up such that we peak at the competitions and then we have recoveries right before.”
Lower Owen Cosgrove added, “After a long season of high mileage this fall and during summer preparation, we’re hoping to feel recovered and rested for the big races, like Andover and Interschols.”
In addition to the effective training schedule from the past few weeks paying off, many have also commented that they have been more motivated to push harder during these meets. Upper Neal Veeranna said, “People are a little more motivated now. From what I’ve seen, everyone is pushing themselves and each other more than ever to improve on all aspects of racing, which has shown greatly when in the races.”
During the Andover meet last Saturday, despite the Boy’s cross country team losing several teammates due to injury, they were still able to narrowly take the victory against Andover by one point. This highlights many of the runners’ ability to step up during these big moments, as they were willing to push themselves harder to set better times and fill in the gaps of their absent teammates. In particular, prep Asher Bravo was able to outkick an Andover runner in order to secure the win for Big Red by just one point.
“The varsity guys did very well in particular,” Reddy said. “There were a few of us who dropped out, but we ended up winning by one point. We were expected to win in the beginning, but we still pulled it off. As for JV, it didn’t go as well, but I do think one of our guys won the race for our section so it was a pretty good day in general.”
Looking ahead, the cross country teams will be going to Interschols and the E/A race in the upcoming weeks, looking to secure more wins. However, this year would be far more challenging to emerge victorious in both of these meets. According to Cosgrove, “Last year, the boys team won by a lot thanks to very fast seniors. This year, however, it is much closer, and can be an exciting showdown.”
