Brianna Ganzon
As the season progresses, the MC cross country team continues to stay strong, evident in the recent Octoberfest hosted by Mt. Carmel on October 11.
Head Coach Dennis McClanahan explains why Mt. Carmel decided to host the meet for the first time.
“We needed to have a non-league meet due to the schedule changes brought about by the cluster meets,” McClanahan said. “We did not want three weeks off in a row.”
Mt. Carmel came in first for the 2.6 mile boys’ varsity, the 2.6 mile girls’ varsity, and the 2.6 mile girls’ junior varsity races.
The home course began on the football field, went across the tennis courts, and up the ramp to the upper baseball fields. After which, the runners turned left onto Sundevil Way to the lower baseball fields and back onto the rim trail from the visitor’s side. To finish the course, the runners had to run the rim trail out of the stadium and then do the first part of the course in reverse.
Senior varsity member Kaitlyn Carrico explains the advantage of running on a home course.
“Since it’s the home course you feel like ‘you got this’,” Carrico said. “It’s not like you’re going to get lost because you know the way and you feel like you can give more than 110 percent.”
Sophomore varsity member Kerenza Robinson also agrees that hosting the meet provides an advantage.
“We definitely know the course a lot better and I don’t think there are really any disadvantages because we really do know the course and we can kind of get an idea of where we should kick at the end and which hill is the hardest.”
Robinson took first at the 2.6 Mile Girls varsity with a time of 16:47 and feels that Girls Varsity put on a solid performance.
“I thought all of our girls did really well and we had a really nice red wave coming in,” Robinson said. “A red wave is when all the girls come in as a group.”
Carrico elaborates on the determination of the Cross Country team as a whole.
“I think we did great, because we all work as a team and we all go by the motto ‘pain is temporary’,” Carrico said. “If you can think of that in your head, even though some parts of the course can be challenging, it makes it seem a lot easier than if you were to think of the hard parts in a negative way.”
In addition to Mt. Carmel’s strong performance, the meet also proved successful financially, with half of the money raised being donated to the breast cancer fundraising event, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
“The meet was successful from the concept of having good competition. With regards to the money raised we had a snack bar and it was fairly successful,” McClanahan said. “50 percent went to the XC ASB account and 50 percent went to the Susan Komen Race for the Cure.”
Regarding the meet overall, McClanahan is pleased and even thinks that there will be a similar event next year.
“The teams who came liked the organization and the facility,” said McClanahan. “We performed pretty well, our Girls JV ran awesome, and both the Boys and Girls Varsities ran strong races. The teams involved got along well and it was for a good cause.”
