Hard Work, dedication, passion. These three words are what defines a great athlete and are what the boys varsity cross country team has lived by this past season. Meet after meet they excelled, winning races and breaking records.
Going into the postseason, they dominated at GACs coming in first as a team with all seven runners making all conference. At districts, they excelled yet again and for the first time in school history qualified for state as a team.
“My goal since I came here was to have a state trophy team every year and it’s been hard to get there with the boys for various reasons, but this year the guys knew they had a shot and they did it,” coach Glavin said.
In school history, only three boys have qualified for state individually so for the entire team to qualify was a major achievement.
“We are excited and it’s nice to be the first boys team in school history to go,” Nolan Schlattman said.
The state meet was held in Columbia at the Gans Creek course on Saturday, Nov. 4 and the conditions were perfect.
“It was a perfect day. The conditions were amazing and there was zero wind,” Glavin said.
The team had gone down a day early to run the course beforehand so that combined with great weather set the team up for a great race.
“The course was fast,” Cale Eldredge said. “The first mile was the fastest I have ever opened up and it was 4:48. It was a really fast second mile too, but I got a cramp in the third mile and it kind of tanked.”
This is the second time Eldredge has gone to the state meet and each time he goes he improves more and more.
“I feel like it’s an expectation for me at this point, but now it’s just about improving at the state meet next year which I definitely think I can do,” he said.
Overall, the team ended up performing very well with almost all of the runners setting new PRs (personal records). Leading the pack, Ayden Taylor was the first Liberty runner to finish and he placed 16th overall with a time of 15:37. He was then followed by Cale Eldredge, Nolan Schlattman, and Landon Jones.
“I don’t think anybody left there feeling like they could have done more or had any regrets about their races,” Glavin said.
Despite not having a state champion, all of the boys returned winners. They made it to state and competed well and for them that was enough. The entire team will continue to practice and hopefully make it back again to state next year.
