With South’s cross country season coming to an end, they look forward to their upcoming sectional and state meets.
On Oct. 21 the team took first at their regional meet and is set to participate in the IHSA sectional meet on Oct. 28.
Head Coach Jason Crowe is confident in their chances to move on to the state meet as well.
“The team is ranked 10th in the state and we’re in a very challenging sectional which we’re proud of but the team has a very good chance of making it to state,” Crowe said.
Crowe is extremely proud of his runners, and describes as having “championship character.” He believes that their character reflects in their races and is an invaluable part of their success on the track.
Senior Jake Willison attributes part of the team’s success to the skills of their coaches.
“Coach Crowe is very inspiring and motivating,” Willison said. “Coach Heckert is a great role model to look up to and one of the top runners in the nation,” Willison said.
Coach Heckert recently placed 135th out of almost 30,000 runners in the Chicago Marathon and is known by her athletes for her intense training methods. These methods reflect in how the cross country team prepares their athletes.
“[We run] a couple of miles each day and build up from there,” Crowe said. “The key thing is the training in the summer and it builds up through the season. We start to cut back on mileage and increase speed training as the season goes on.”
Crowe stresses to his athletes that this regimen be supplemented with a lot of water and recovery time.
“The little things are huge in this sport,” Crowe said.