This year on Sept. 16, the cross country team took off to compete at one of the fastest courses in the state. They traveled to Missouri Southern State University in Joplin for the Missouri Southern Stampede.

They competed in the green division, running with teams coming from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, with more than 300 boys and 300 girls in each varsity race, over 200 boys in the JV race and almost 200 girls in their JV race.

The drive there took about five hours, consisting of many naps, tik toks, and laughs. This was the first overnight meet for all of the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen, so the bus was buzzing with excitement for what the weekend was going to bring.

After getting food, they arrived at the course to run it and set up the tent for the race the next day. Following running the course, they left to go to the hotel. The lobby was super crowded with everyone from the team trying to get their room keys, eager to go to their rooms to get changed and go to dinner.

The team carb-loaded with pasta at Olive Garden to prepare for the race the next morning. They basically got a whole room in the restaurant to themselves. Everyone was talking about race plans and how excited they were for the course the next day. Luckily, BeReal went off at the perfect time, right when everyone got their food.

The manager of the team, Sarah Merino, said her favorite part of the trip was spending time with her roommates. “It just felt like a big sleepover. I thought we were going to stay up the whole night but we were responsible and we didn’t.”

After everyone got a good night’s rest, they headed down to the lobby to indulge in the free breakfast. There were about three other teams staying at the same hotel, so it was a unique experience seeing the people compete against us outside of the race setting.

The team headed to the course to warm up and get into the race mindset after breakfast. Knowing that this course is one of the fastest in the state, everyone was excited to be able to experience it. It was a long day at the course with different divisions in each race, along with college races being run. Most of the time was spent hanging out with teammates at the tent. One by one, our team crossed the finish line and headed back to the tent to get squared away and head on the post race run.

After stretching, doing push-ups and crunches, and having the team meeting, everyone got on the bus to head back home. This was a fun experience for everyone involved, and they would like to do it some time soon again.