Thank You for a Great Season

The final 2 meets for the Cistercian XC team have not been our best placing wise, but these meets were possibly the most important to the team. We ran the former at Money Gram park, and the SPC Championship at Trinity Valley.

At Money Gram park (North Zone), Varsity finished 6^th out 8 teams. JV’s season had ended just before this race, which made the races smaller and the competition more intense. But we were proud that Alex Smith (’21) and John LeSage (’19) both finished the 5 kilometer course under 18 minutes, personal bests for both of these two excellent runners. The race may have been the hardest of the year, as it was not only 50 degrees, but there were also 25 mile per hour winds that November day. After the race, the team stopped for lunch and got back to class “as quickly as possible.”

The last race of the year was very sentimental to the team. It was not only the seniors’s last race, but it was also the SPC Championship. Alex Smith finished first on the team with John LeSage and Max Rogers (’19) close behind. The year before this, the team finished 12^th overall, and this year, the XC team made some improvement, finishing 11th. It’s also important to see that this course was the whole team’s Achilles heel. It involved heavy repetition, major hills, and a rather awkward course. Nevertheless, we’re satisfied with the result; any improvement is good improvement.

At the end of this season, I’m sure the whole team can look back on the whole season as a monstrous achievement. Possibly our best meet was the Robinson Invitational, where Varsity won and JV took 2nd place. Coach Roane was fantastic to us all year, only wanting to see the best out of us… He wasn’t here just to see us do “average”, he genuinely wanted to see the greatest out of us.

The next one goes to the seniors, who I know for sure think they won’t miss this, but come next fall they’ll definitely be missing it. Connor Blend (’18) was definitely the most successful out of the bunch, leading the team for the first few meets of the season, only to see a toe injury half way through the season. But as a whole, the seniors were great influences to the team, showing everyone the ropes.

Also, we’d all like to thank the parents that came out to the meets. They were never enjoyable rides, or even meets as a whole. But all the parents were willing to make long drives to odd places, giving up their saturdays, just to see us run. It’s important to know that the parents were just as dedicated as we were this year. Maybe next year, with the addition of this year’s fourth form to high school and more practice, we might be able to have an even more successful season. But at the end of this year, I think we’ll all be able to look back on it as one of the school’s best. If anyone in the school is interested in the sport, we’d love to have you; the more the merrier.

On a personal note, this season was, although my first, a huge success for myself and the rest of the freshmen. The addition of a handful of freshmen was happily recieved by the team, and the season was highly energetic. The whole team would like to thank Coach Roane and all others who were dedicated to us; this was a fantastic season.