Volume VI Issue I

Starting in early July, the Cross Country team had the weather in their favor, with most of the team showing up to the 7:00 AM Captain Practices. But as the season would officially start, that streak of bright and sunny weather would take a turn for the worse. As the first week of the new school year came, so did the first official Cross Country meet. With all runners ready and conditioned, weather struck out of nowhere when Hamilton was hit with the first heat wave of the season. This heat wave would cause the first meet at Mercer County Park and some following practices to be canceled. The trend of unfortunate weather for the Cross Country team would not stop here.  

For the following meet, Tuesday at Rosedale Park, the team was more ready than ever but the one thing that was still holding everyone back was the heat. The heat from the previous week was still lingering around and at a course like Rosedale where a large portion is directly in the sun, this was a large obstacle for most to get over. Freshman runner, Grady Denson described the meet as being “hot and hard”. When all was said and done, the meet ended up being a strong turn out. After the first meet, the team started to have a good feeling about the season but the weather would continue to haunt the next meet. 

Succeeding the meet at Rosedale, the next Tuesday, the meet would be at Mercer County Park which previously already had a meet canceled. Expectations were at a high for the meet due to the good weather and the high morale but, yet again, misfortune struck when many runners got lost due to the markings being unclear, which Mercer County has had issues with in the past. Senior Captain, Cole Goldenbaum shared his opinion about the meet stating that though “It was marked better it was not great,” and “Areas were still confusing,” referring to the course.

The following week, the meet would be at Robbinsville High School which is known for its rather straightforward course which would have runners looking forward to a possible personal best. However, inclement weather suddenly popped up the day of the course. This cold and rainy  weather was completely opposite to the humid and hot weather at Rosedale. The rain caused the exclusively dirt and grass course to become muddy and slippery, which resulted in what would usually be an easy course to become an uphill battle with runners slipping and sliding around. Junior runner, Keira Kildea would describe the challenge by saying “the mud weighed me down, but the strive to win kept me going”. 

Even though the team faced some of the toughest challenges this season, everyone on the team made sure to persevere. The summer Captain’s practices established discipline and good memories, including Volleyball fun Fridays. Once the season kicked off, many freshmen found their places in the sport and stayed adamant through a hard first season. For the established runners, many earned their PRs (personal best) at these past couple meets.  It is clear that even in  the heat, rain, mud and more, Cross Country athletes will always fight until that finish line.