Improvement is something senior cross country Captain Aiden Shearer noticed in his fellow teammates throughout the Cross Country season, which began in late August this year.
“Over the summer we had a lot more people showing up to summer runs, and I think that’s really shown in the growth of the team this year,” Shearer said.
Among them is junior Dexter McFadden, who, in his sixth year of Cross Country, has seen massive success this past season. McFadden had three personal records over the course of the season, which he credits to training methods employed over the summer.
“Starting off with a big base; so building up in slower and slower times and progressing to faster and faster times is a good place to start. You start off with a higher mileage and slower times, and there’s this triangle of mileage based on times you want to build up,” McFadden said.
This sentiment of enhancement took the focus of the cross country team as a whole as well, with many other members executing a similar regiment according to Shearer.
“A lot of the team has been stepping up. We lost some seniors last year, but the people who weren’t as fast last year have improved by a lot, and through that, the whole team has together gotten better,” Shearer said.
A big part of the performance of the athletes comes from morale, which is important to maintain in an endurance sport like Cross Country. Some members develop traditions before a meet, including Dexter McFadden.
“I have a tradition where I eat a marshmallow before every race for a little glycemic boost,” McFadden said.
Teamwork and collaboration is what allows improvement to happen, down to small, fun details like an attitude-boosting chant before a race.
“We have a chant, it goes: ‘Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s running time!’” McFadden said.
The goal of this positive environment is to foster that drive so crucial to improvement in an endurance sport where it’s easy to be constant in performance, which overall leads to success.
“We’ve been doing pretty good, at our invites and just daily meets. I think we have a good shot at the post-season this year,” Shearer said.
But, of course, none of this newfound improvement could be possible without one essential member of Cross Country, appreciated by all, including McFadden.
“Our team mascot is Boris the boar- he’s critical to cross country,” McFadden said.
