Elgin Courier (Elgin, Tex.), Vol. 127, No. 36, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 30, 2017 Page: 25 of 30
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017
ELGIN COURIER - WILDCAT KICKOFF 2017
PAGE 11
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Runners set sights
on postseason trail
By Lauren Jette
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district meet against cross country powers
Cedar Park, Georgetown and Rouse this
year.
But for now, they catch their breath, pack
up their bags and head in for the school
day, counting down the days until the next
meet.
t’s still dark and cool on an early Au-
gust morning.
The sun hasn’t come up yet and the
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“Even though cross country is a really
individual sport, our team on the boys and
girls side, we all work together,” Ruiz said.
“We have practices together and we all
bond really well and we work well to-
gether. We don’t clash at all.”
Elgin will look to make some noise at the
heat hasn’t started the upward ascent to
triple digits.
A light breeze blows in across the track,
where clusters of runners jog around the
outer edge of the field.
Most teenagers are still at home asleep,
but a group of dedicated athletes has been
waking up early before long before the start
of school, pounding the earth in preparation
for the upcoming cross country season.
After starting practices in late July with
only a handful of runners, the Wildcats
cross country team has grown to include
two dozen runners.
“This is the biggest turnout we’ve ever
had,” said senior runner Bianca Ruiz.
A new feature this year is the addition of
a trail path towards the back of the high
school property for the team to practice on,
a welcome change from the usual paths.
“They gave us a trail to run on and not
just fields and track,” Ruiz said. “It’s a nice
change.”
Practices the first couple of weeks into the
season were longer runs to get the runners
acclimated to the heat and build up their
endurance.
With the first meet of the season right
around the corner, the team is incorporating
more speed work into practices.
“We do a combination of speed work and
distance running,” Ruiz explained.
“Right now, we’re mostly trying to do
speed work to try and get speed in because
during the beginning of August, we did 40
and 50-minute runs.”
Each day of the week has its own set
workout, with a focus on the different parts
of a cross country run, from distance to fin-
ishing speed to mental focus and strength.
“There’s been five different workouts a
week. Friday is the cool down run. Monday
is the trail run,” Tim Eubanks said.
“Our Tuesdays definitely vary between
tempo runs and speed work,” said Rebecca
Rivers.
This year’s schedule keeps the Wildcats
and Lady Cats close to Austin, with the
district meet slated to take place at Old Set-
tlers Park in Round Rock again, which is
also host to the state meet.
“We’re going to closer meets to get better
competition,” Ruiz said.
“Our district is definitely going to be as
hard as it was last year,” Rivers said.
“Hopefully we can get as many girls up
there as we can and maybe we can go to
regionals as a team, who knows?”
Goals for the season are to decrease times
as the season progresses to get into the
ideal time range just in time for the district
meet on Oct. 13.
“My personal goal this year is to beat
my best time. Last year, my best time was
18:50,” Eubanks said.
“This year, I’m hoping to get below an
18:20, hopefully in the 17s, which will be
hard, but I want to do it.”
“Last year, I got 17 on my district race
and I was 30 seconds away from going to
regionals,” Ricardo Reyes said.
“I got really bummed out, but I’ve been
working twice as hard this summer and I
hope to be in the 16s.”
Even before the first meet, the runners
were already establishing a bond for the
season.
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Elgin Courier (Elgin, Tex.), Vol. 127, No. 36, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 30, 2017, newspaper, August 30, 2017; Elgin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1555403/m1/25/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Elgin Public Library.