Cross-Country team focused on season ahead

By Kylee Shubert, Staff Writer

September 24, 2024

ROCKLAND- On Tuesday, September 10 the Rockland High School Cross Country team had their first meet. Since last year, the team has been open to 7th and 8th graders, leading the upperclassmen to become great leaders and role models.

“[It’s a] very young team with a lot of new middle schoolers with two Junior captains and one senior captain, growing as a team and showing leadership skills since it’s much different than it was before,” said history teacher and Cross-Country coach Mrs. Kara Frazer.

Mrs. Frazer ran Cross-Country in college, which led her to want to become a coach. She has found other runners who also fell in love with this sport, and it is something that the team can share.

“Cross-country affected my high school experience by making me feel so much more included and feeling like I have a support system,” said Girls Captain Kayla Shubert.

Cross-Country has positively impacted all the athletes by helping them feel more supported and included both in and out of school.

Running Cross-Country can help new students connect with others and set goals they want to achieve with this sport. 

“It helps you get faster for other sports,” said boys Captain Luca Bahnuk.

By running Cross-Country in the fall, athletes can get faster for winter and spring sports, including winter and spring track. 

This sport can also help get the team into a back-to-school routine since the team had held practice over the summer with the captains who held morning practices. 

Coaches Mrs. Frazer, Mr. Steve Capone, and Ms. Chelsea Savage have the team do different long-distance runs and sprinting workouts at practices every day after school outside of the middle school and goes from 3:00-4:30 p.m.

The home meets are held at Hartsuff Park. The team won a meet last week. This sport focuses on self-improvement and involves a lot of working as a team and motivating each other to do great.