2022 WMS Cross Country Website

This site will provide up to date information for the WMS Cross Country Team.

11/3/2022 Today is the last practice! State Meet on Saturday.

Thanks for a great season.

10/26/22 We had a strong meet yesterday against Needham to end out regular season meet schedule. We will have practice Thursday and Friday this week. Next week, we will have practice on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. No practice on Friday the day before the State Meet. All team members can attend the practices.

Information on the State Meet and the waiver forms can be found in the main office. If interested in participating, please fill out the waiver form as soon as possible. Coach Bugden will register all WMS runners and send one list to the meet director.

10/21/22. We had a beautiful day for the race against Natick yesterday. Lots of good performances by the WMS runners! After a short run today, we played ultimate frisbee.

10/15/22 We had a good group of runners compete against Bigelow in the rain on Thursday. We did well as a group and both teams performed well in the challenging weather.

10/11/22. All the runners worked hard today at practice. After the warmup lap and exercises they completed several running drills, then they ran the course hill 4x. After running, they completed a few minutes of core exercises. Enjoy the day off tomorrow and Thursday is a home meet.

10/8/22

The Wellesley runners performed well at the away meet at Brown M.S. in Newton. The course was 1.9 miles so it was longer than our home course. We received everyone's results from the race yesterday.

The runners continue to increase their endurance each week. Even though the fitness level is increasing, it is not unusual for runners have "side stiches"/muscle cramps in stomach area when running longer or in a race. Over time, runners experience fewer stitches as their bodies become more used to training and competing in races. Stiches are no fun, but walking may help them go away and with more training most runners tend not to have the side stiches.

The weather is cooler so the runners may want to bring a sweatshirt, sweatpants or tights as needed over the next few weeks. A group of runners ran the Brook Path recently with Coach Bugden. The number of runners participating in a group run to the Brook Path needs to be limited due to the total length of the run, (approximately 2.5 miles) and safety concerns.

Team Meet Schedule:

Meets are scheduled to begin at 3:45.

For home meets, the runners can go down to the Sprague Field after school, but may also arrive at 3:15, for the home meets.

We will be setting up the course by 3pm. When the other team arrives we will review the course with them. Both teams will also do warmups and some jogging.

Due to the shortage of bus drivers and traffic, the traveling teams are frequently late, and the meet start time is often delayed. Wellesley runners will have buses for the away meets.

11/5/2022 Massachusetts State Middle School Meet (Saturday). *All runners are eligible to participate in the State Meet. The school does not provide transportation to the State Meet. Runners will need to register for the State Meet in advance. If you choose to participate, it is not too early to plan for the day.

What is Cross Country?

RUNNING!!!

1.5 - 2 mile course races

Each Meet there will be 2 races:

• Girls will compete with girls

• Boys will compete with boys

Why participate on a Cross Country Team?

In addition to being on a team, meeting new friends and challenging themselves, kids involved in running benefit in many other ways:

Besides enjoying the health benefits of regular exercise, kids who are physically fit sleep better and are better able to handle physical and emotional challenges — from running to catch a bus to studying for a test.

Running is a great activity to help kids build endurance, which is developed when kids regularly engage in aerobic activity. Running offers kids the sense of freedom and the sense of reward and achievement when they finish.

While everyone can benefit from regular exercise, kids who are active will:

• have stronger muscles and bones be less likely to become overweight

• decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

• possibly have lower blood pressure

• have potentially lower blood cholesterol levels

• have a leaner body from burned body fat.

Like so many individual sports that rely on self-motivation and hard work to achieve success, running teaches kids self respect, commitment and builds self-esteem, all of which are important values for kids to learn and build on in their lives.