COVID cannot keep cross country from their competitions or their drive to succeed. The season is near and end as seven runners Jewel Baer, Catalina Purcell, Brooke Latham, Emma Milsow, Alexis Escobedo, Isaac McGill and Miles Cox compete in the State Meet today in Round Rock.
Like most sports, COVID created setbacks in schedules and practices. UIL pushed back the starting date for the cross country team this year due to the virus. The season planned to start at the beginning of August, but official practices got pushed back about three weeks. Once practices started, the runners had to incorporate masks into their training.
“Due to COVID, we do have to wear masks when warming up, but we do not have to wear them when we are running,” senior, Emerson Frye said. “Then, we also have to wear them when cooling down.”
Cross country also had restrictions on the number of people that could view the games and teams that were able to come and race.
“COVID has affected the program of cross country, due to the fact that less teams are able to compete at the same time, we must leave the racing area promptly after, and fewer spectators are allowed at meets,” junior, Tatum Abbruscato said.
Different from most sports, the lowest score in cross country wins. This score comprises the team’s top five runners’ scores. The order they cross the finish line equates to the number of points a runner receives. This caused more of a dependency on the whole team compared to one star player.
“It is super important that each individual is doing their best for the team,” Frye said. “Basically, if you have one runner that is super duper fast on your team it won’t matter if all your other teammates are at the back. That is one of Amarillo High’s biggest strengths. We have a ton of [runners] that are fast and group together at the front.”
After the success of both boys and girls team members qualifying for state in 2019, cross country worked hard to achieve the same goal of making it to state this year.
“I am looking forward to seeing our hard work pay off; whether that’s running a new best time or going to state individually or as a team,” junior, Brooke Latham said.
