Cross Country season overview
The 2022-23 Cross Country season has come to an end, and McNary's girls athletes did their best to keep one foot in front of the other.
“Our team has grown a lot, last year we only had five girls, this year we have about 15 girls,” said Junior Siosi Utaatu.
Utaatu also feels they have not just grown with their running skills, but also as a team all together.
“We had 20 PRs(personal records) and 2 school records that we broke,” Utaatu said.
The team seemed to improve every day and had a solid season. They also had some key things that coach Josh Christensen had the girls focus on during practice.
“We spend a lot of time discussing upcoming courses that we will race on and the different strategies that we will use to compete at the highest level. Each session has its own focus and purpose,” Christensen said.
Chistensen has been coaching cross country and track and field for 11 years (including this year), but his first year at McNary.
“Beating the person in front of me,” Junior June Higgins Jenkins said in regards to what she focuses on during a race.
“I would say I bring excitement to the team, and the season was great,” Higgins Jenkins said.
This season the girls had lots of good meets but their strongest meet was at the CVC Championship meet.
“Our strongest meet was the CVC Championship meet on October 26th. This meet was our focus since we began training in June. Our girls ran inspired and with purpose. It was a joy to watch. We had ten girls each run PR’s, with an average improvement of 53 seconds over the 5000 meter distance,” Christensen said.
One of McNary’s Cross County girls also is the first to qualify for state since 2015 which is exciting for the team.
“One of our girls qualified for the state championship meet: ninth grader Jocelyn Schnurbusch. She is the first girl from McNary to qualify for the state meet since 2015, ” Christensen said.