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The Viking men’s and women’s cross country teams had a prosperous day competing at the Fighting Bee Invitational on October 10. The women’s team placed fourth out of eleven teams, and both the men and women ran several personal bests, including Hayley Leonard, nursing junior; Briana Mutch, kinesiology and health promotion sophomore; Alex Arechavaleta, graphic design freshman; and Nate Johnson business administration – management concentration junior.

“Obviously, this starts to be the time of year where we’re starting a gradual taper with our training,” Jerry Monner, head men’s and women’s cross country coach, said. “So we should start to see somewhat of a drop in times.”

According to the coach and runners, the weekend invitational was a typical challenging course. Arechavaleta said he had no indication on how well he was doing until the very end.

“I didn’t know what I was going to get until I crossed that finish line,” he said.

 Johnson said it is not abnormal to set a best time toward the beginning of a new season.

“I guess for me, I started out a little more conservatively,” Johnson said. “I kept the same pace, and the last mile I just turned it up. I just finished strong.”

In many competitive sports, a team’s competition is beside them at all times allowing them to compete directly with one another. In cross country, however, the competitors are typically scattered, but all have the same goal—to cross the finish line in the fastest time possible.

“It makes it harder, I guess,” Mutch said. “It gives you more motivation to run faster.”

Johnson comments on the contrast between cross country and football, remarking that while football tends to be more extreme, cross country has a more constant pace.

“I always have to react to the competitors,” Johnson said. “I just don’t have time to draw up a play.”

When it comes to motivating and training themselves, the runners said they are working hard to continue dropping seconds from their running times and pushing themselves to do their best.

Hayley Leonard reflected on the importance of pushing one another out of their comfort zones. “If you push yourself… you can do more than you think you will,” she said.

Despite a couple injuries they have faced, the cross country team is looking forward to the new and upcoming spring season with high hopes.

“Obviously, there’s going to be more depth and more teams to compete against,” Coach Monner said. “Our biggest goal at the end of the year is to go in and beat our ranking of where we’re supposed to be at and hopefully surprise some teams in there.”