After a season full of heat waves and hard days, boy’s cross country comes out on top!
The boy’s cross country team won the Southwest Ohio Conference, better known as SWOC. Students from Harrison, Mt. Healthy, Northwest, and Talawanda came out to compete on Saturday October 14th. Our boys broke Talawanda’s four year streak of winning the SWOC Championship. Both Harrison and Talawanda gained 29 points. What happened next you ask? Did it end in a tie? No! It all came down to the sixth runner finished for each team. A.J. Willis, our sixth runner, finished with three other runners in between him and Talawanda’s sixth runner, and Harrison won its first cross country championship since 2001.
Several students earned personal records (PRs). Some of the students who earned a season PR are Rory Summer and Mason Barnes. Other students earned a career PR: huge congrats to James Kirby, Keegan Lockhart, A.J. Willis, Taige Clark, Logan Dryer, and Jacob Rudolph. We congratulate all students who competed this season.
When asked why they thought Cross Country had so much success this season, senior Addisen Kohls said, “The athletes bought into what we were doing and believed. We just worked a lot harder this year.” Sophomore James Kirby said, “We had lots of new guys with a positive attitude.” Junior A.J. Willis added, “We took practice seriously.”
Junior A.J. Willis would like to mention that it was not just him who won the championship, it was a result of “everyone’s effort. I may have been the person [who placed sixth and got the winning point], but everyone else on the team set me up to do that.”
Why is cross country so great? James Kirby says its because of “how much it makes me feel rewarded and the gratification of getting a PR.” Addisen Kohls states “I like team dinners every Thursday.” A.J. Willis thinks is is a great place because of “the environment.”
Cross Country is a non-tryout sport, so if you are interested in joining the cross country team next season, keep your eyes peeled at the end of the school year for information on how to join.
