With anticipation high, runners were excited to race for the first time this season.
Liberty competed in its first meet at the Fort Zumwalt North Twilight on Sept. 5 at the SLYSA soccer complex.
Last year, Liberty got their first team win on the boys side at this meet. Although they did not win the meet like they did last year, the Eagles still got a very high fourth place on the boys side, and a seventh place on the girls side.
However, individually, there were some very high places from a few runners that were not present last year. In a quite large eight second lead, Ayden Taylor (12) scored a first place finish with a time of 15:48, and both Nate Wietbrock (11) and Landon Jones (12) also managed to snag some medals for themselves. On the girls side, Bella Navarro-Sanchez (10) finished the highest, with a very high sixth place, running a new PR of 19:32. Kailey Lawrence (11) also managed to get a medal, with a nice touch of going sub 20 running 19:59.
Cross Country coach Tony Glavin shares how he thinks the season is going so far.
“The team did a great job of packing up and working together, this is something we have worked a lot on in workouts so far this season,” Glavin said.
Many of the runners had similar times in this race, including Tyler Besowshek (11) and Owen Greer (11), with only a 7 second differential to their times. This was done on purpose, as it is believed that running with other people helps you get through a challenging race like a 5K (3.1 miles).
Although all of these runners had fast times, some of them believe they have even more improvements to make.
“I could have done a better job sticking with the pack,” Navarro-Sanchez said.
Navarro-Sanchez also stated how her plan before the race was to stick with this lead pack.
Another runner, Ayden Taylor shares how he thinks he could improve.
“I think I could have closed a little harder,” Taylor said.
The team has some big meets coming up, including the Forest Park Festival, Missouri Southern Stampede, and the Gans Creek Classic, which will be the state course.
We will see what improvements the team makes later in the season, as Glavin is training the team to be as prepared as possible for the championship races that will be later.
“This week we will be more conservative in the beginning but then we will shift our strategy to getting out faster.” Glavin said.
