2025 Cross-Country Recap

By: Anna Bennett

Student Athlete Interviews

I was able to interview the runners on the cross country team after school, before they had their first and only home meet of the season. Before the meet, they were experiencing a range of things from excitement to fear, and nervousness to confidence. I asked members of the team how they felt about being able to run on their home course. Many of them thought that knowing the course well would give them an advantage, especially since learning the course is one of the more stressful parts of a meet. One runner said that “knowing the course is going to help her cook”. A couple of team members also agreed they didn’t feel as much pressure to perform well since they were comfortable with the course.

In terms of the members' individual performance, almost all of them thought that they could improve at the meet. Some of the runners had specific goals or strategies for the meet, while others were just hoping that they could do their best. Some of the runners' goals include winning, placing higher than in previous meets, improving their time, and just running a good race in general. 11th-grade Lucas Orchitt planned to strategically pace himself so that he didn't use up all his energy. Abagayle Mack-Dyer, an 8th grader, said her strategy was to keep up a nice pace, but still save some energy for the end. She thought it would be a good idea to start slightly slow, set her eyes on someone in front of her, and try to push herself to get ahead of them. Aitana Seville had similar plans for her race. She was aiming to “start slow, conserve her energy, and book it at the end.” I asked Rachael Brothers, who is in 7th grade, what keeps her going during the race and what she is thinking about. She said that she tries to keep a rhythm in her head to maintain her pace. She said she is motivated when she thinks about finishing and who will be proud of her when she does finish.

Interview with Mr. M

Mr Mastrangelo (Mr. M) has coached the Green Mountain Middle School and High School Cross Country Team since last year. GM has generally had a pretty small team, but Mr. M hopes to keep it growing consistently. Last year, he had 11 runners, and this year he has 14. Currently, there seems to be more middle school interest in cross country than high school; however, this might lead to further improvement of the program. 

Mr. M hopes that “growing team numbers will lead to continued success.” He wants the team to be able to continue to compete at the SVL level and to have more athletes qualify for state. This year, there are three athletes going to compete at states. Best of luck to them!

I asked Mr. M how the cross-country athletes are improving individually. He says he has seen a lot of growth from all of the athletes, especially those who he had last year. He said it is hard to measure growth by comparing time throughout the season since each course is different. But he says it is awesome when a runner can come back to a course for the second time and see how much they have improved.

GM hosted their first cross-country meet for the first time in years on September 30th. It was the only home meet of the season, and there were 4 schools present. Mr. M's goal was to keep it small to start since it was his first time hosting a meet. He hopes to do it again next year and expand the number of teams that are invited. 

I asked Mr. M how he felt on the day of the home meet and if he was stressed. He said that he felt prepared and knew that he was as prepared as he could be, so he would just have to wait and see how it went. Although he did say that he was stressed the week prior because he was unsure if everything would be ready in time, a lot of work was put into the trails to ensure that they were ready. Mr M said he spent numerous hours every weekend in September out in the woods clearing brush, trimming trees, and marking paths to make the trail acceptable for a race. In the end, the meet went super well. Many of the runners performed well, and everything went smoothly. In conclusion, Mr. M says that as long as the kids on the team are “having fun and enjoying running,” then that is all that matters to him.

Great season, GM cross-country!