As the sun rose on a cool, windless Saturday morning, all remained quiet and still. Hundreds of runners toed the starting line as anticipation for one of the largest cross country meets of the season grew. The gun fired and a sea of colors filled with runners from all across the state began sprinting east in an attempt to position their team to finish on top of all others.
This cross country meet, which transpired on the Edmond Santa Fe state championship course, is known as pre-state. A meet that marks the midway point of a long cross country season and puts some of the state’s best runners against one another as a preview of the state championship meet, nearly one month away.
Both cross country teams competed in this meet against some of the most well-rounded and experienced teams in the state, and both showed a glimpse of their potential future success.
The boy’s team finished fifth out of a crowded 17 team field and head coach Matt Parent was proud of how the team ran and said some runners even stepped up in the aftermath of other runners becoming ill just days before the race.
“Saturday went pretty well, we’ve been dealing with sickness and health issues, like everyone does,” Parent said. “However, those that weren’t sick and didn’t have to deal with any of that, they stepped up and ran some of the best races of the year.”
Going forward, Parent hopes to add the runners that were sick back in with the runners that took a step forward in the wake of their absence.
“Some of the guys that may not have run as well, did run way better Saturday. Now we get these other runners that were sick back, and we go on at full speed, and start plugging them in where they were before. So it sets us up pretty nicely for the finish to this season,” Parent said.
The girl’s team finished sixth out of 15 teams, and head coach Rodney Zimmerman was happy with the results that the team put out.
“I’m really happy with how we ran, they got a lot of PRs. I thought their pacing from mile to mile was good,”Zimmerman said. “So I was extremely happy with their performance and I think that’s probably going to be a mental uplift for them as we go on through the season.”
Over the course of last week, the runners have had success and Zimmerman credits this success to the mindset of the girls through the highs and lows.
“I think our success can be drawn to attitude and mindset, because we’ve had a lot of bumps in the road and they have handled every one of them, and I think it’s just their attitude to take care of business no matter what happens,” Zimmerman said.
Individually, both teams had some standout performances, but senior Avery Stanley broke the school record for the fastest girls 5k time, running a 19:08. A record that she previously held.
Stanley, who has been a four-year member of the varsity team, hopes to replicate and even improve on Saturday’s result in the state meet but knows that doing so will take hard work.
“My goals for the rest of this season are to break 19 minutes and be in the top seven at state. I know that these things will be hard and will require me to be mentally and physically strong. I just need to trust in the training and hours that I have put in and believe in myself.”
On the individual side of the guy’s race, junior Kayden Chaparro clocked in at a personal best 5k time of 17:10 and a 14th place finish and led the boy’s team, for yet another meet. Chaparro, who has led the team in every meet this season, credits his desire to give it his all every single day at practice as to how he has sustained success throughout this season.
“Every day I just try to give 110% effort and avoid backing down from the challenge of a difficult workout, because I know in the long run, the more effort I give, the better I will be,” said Chaparro.