With the end of this year’s season approaching, Yamhill Carlton’s cross-country team is working hard to qualify for the state meet and for a top place in districts, and the team’s PR’s and consistent hard work give them a great shot.
The team trains hard at practices with a rigorous yet simple schedule consisting of three types of practices. The team alternates between workout days, easy days, and recovery, as described by Nolan Chadwick, a senior athlete on the team.
“At the start of practice our coach lets us know what we’ll be doing that day and then we warm up and get going on our run. Afterwards we might do a quick circuit and some core, and then we just stretch and roll out,” Chadwick said.
The team travels all over to compete at meets, the farthest this season being 2 hours away in Tillamook. Before each meet, the team completes a warm up together consisting of stretches, a ten minute jog, dynamics, and putting on their gear, before lining up at the start line.
“The starter will say ‘runners to your mark’ and then fire and the race begins. Afterwards we jog for about 5-10 minutes and load back on the bus,” Chadwick said.
The close knit relationships of the small team make it easy to work together and push through the long runs. The core members of the team have been together for a while, making the team more of a family.
“The team is really close. We are all able to talk to each other in shorthand because, as you can imagine, there can be a lot of talking on those long runs. Though sometimes we don’t talk at all,” said Chadwick.
There’s a lot of hope on the team as the end of the season comes around the corner, with many new records creating a vision for competing in the state meet, as well as placing in districts.
“So far this season has gone amazingly well. Everybody this year is running faster than our top 5 runners last year; I should mention that it is the top 5 runners that score at a meet,” Chadwick said.
With the state meet approaching, the team is training hard to place. The team is neck in neck for points with Santiam Christian, and if they beat them, they will finish second in districts.
