Slippery Trails and Steep Hills

Cross country running was back and bigger than ever with 30 runners on the John McCrae team. Although it was a condensed season with fewer competitions than normal it was encouraging to see the runners back out on the trails.

The team was led by Ms. Dillabaugh and Ms. Derouin who ran early morning and after school practices, providing excellent coaching and motivation to the athletes. The practices included running on the streets and trails around John McCrae with weekly yoga mixed in as well.

Bulldogs participated in two meets, the first one was the West Conference Final and the second was the NCSSAA (National Capital Secondary School Athletics Association) City Championships. Both meet days were sunny and cool which is excellent weather for cross country running. The most challenging aspect of the city championship meet was the slippery, muddy conditions that resulted in the bright yellow McCrae shorts being splattered brown.

When asked, Ms. Dillabaugh said this about the JMSS cross country season. “John McCrae had a large xc team this year with 30 athletes competing in all the novice, junior and senior age groups. Everyone worked hard and enjoyed our two races with some tough hills and lots of mud! We had a strong finish with our Senior Boys team placing fourth at the city championships. It was fun to see 10 senior boys out this year, one of the largest teams in the field. Another strong finish was accomplished by our Novice boys team placing third at the city championships. Other top finishes included: Samuel Gomez who was 12th in the novice boys race, Rachel Hertz 11th in the junior girls race and Nolan Legare who was 9th in the senior boys race. Contributing lots to the team spirit and also racing well (26 in the Junior Boys race) was Aljoscha Majerowitch, who is an exchange student visiting with us this year from Germany. Congrats to all the runners on a good season.”

Cross country running is both an individual as well as a team sport. Although you are trying to achieve your own best time, your placement is used to tally up points for your school team. Physical endurance and mental strength are key components of cross country running as you need to be able to run continually for a lengthy distance and you need to push yourself to keep going.

To wrap up the season, the JMSS cross country team ran hard, finished well and left with a little mud on their shoes.