Alliance X-Country Districts

Alliance+X-Country+Districts

Kathleen Kuzmic, Staff Writer

This year, Cross Country Districts for classes B and D were held in Ogallala Nebraska, at the end of the season. Every varsity runner of the Alliance Cross country team ran the course, which was made up of a series of loops, that totaled to be 5 kilometers long. Although none of the Alliance Bulldogs placed in the final meet, each team member believes they have had a successful season.

Before districts, the team trained about an hour a day. They occupied themselves with both long and short workouts, each runner training at their own pace. They were even assigned a few intense workouts the week of districts, to prepare themselves for one of the most thrilling races of the season.

Almost every member of the team beat their personal times by the end of the year, and look forward to returning the following cross-country season.

Hannah Weare, a sophomore and first year teammate of the AHS cross country team, joined because of her love for running. This year, she had the goal of finishing a 5k race in under 23 minutes. She eventually succeeded in achieving her goal, and plans to rejoin the team next year.

Weare feels that the team that provided her with the most competition this year was Sottsbluff.

Her advice for future runners is to ‘run hard’.

Tyler Adamson, senior and member of the AHS cross country team, was influenced by his mother three years ago to join the sport, and has been a member ever since. His biggest competition this year was against Gering.

Tyler’s goal for the season was to make it to state, which inquires a runner to place in the top fifteen at districts. Due to his injuries at the beginning of the season, Adamson did not achieve his goal this year, but enjoyed the season none the less. Because this is his final year, Adamson would like to advise the future runners of the team to ‘work hard and run fast’.

This is the second year that Nate Lanik, the AHS math instructor, has coached cross country. His expectations for the season were for every athlete to perform up to his/her full potential and to improve throughout the year.

Coach Lanik’s team trained on average from five to ten hours a week. Depending on the athletes of the team, Lanik plans to train the less experienced with distance workouts and more experienced runners with competitive workouts. He believes the team needs to work on mileage, which is the base of distance running. Although none of his runners qualified for state, Coach agrees that this was indeed a great season, and he looks forward to next year!