Cross Country Finally at the Finish
The path to qualifying for state finals for any cross-country runner is challenging. Yet two of Aragon’s talented runners, junior Rory Beyer and senior Lauren Croshaw qualified for state.
Both have worked diligently to State. Beyer says “[the key to a successful cross country season] is the amount of miles you run over the summer and throughout the season. Summer is really the key to success for cross country, because all the miles that you run in the summer translates to how well conditioned you are. So usually, I ran between 45-55 miles each week during the summer.” Croshaw on the other hand, says “[I trained by] doing a lot of base work by building up mileage at the beginning of the summer and then a lot of hill runs.”
Even with all the practice, get¬ting to state took a lot of work. Croshaw qualified by winning the Division II CCS race. Beyer qualified by placing eighth in the Division II CCS race.
The love of running has pushed both students to train as hard as they can. Croshaw loves the sport of running. She says, “Running is all focused on you. You have to be mentally strong more than anything. I used to dread running a little. But it has grown on me. Long runs are the best way I could think of to start a day. And I get the biggest runner’s high after running well in a race.”
Making it to state can cause pressure to any individual. How¬ever, both Beyer and Croshaw replaced their nerves with excitement. Croshaw stated, “I’m excited. I know I’ve trained well and I’m ready to see what I can do.” On November 26, both Beyer and Croshaw competed at Fresno High School for the CIF state finals. Neither won, but Beyer set a new school record for the 5k distance running the course in 16:11.
Looking back on the race, Croshaw stated about her performance that, “I was nervous going into the race. To a certain extent nerves will always affect my performance but I can’t let it get the best of me. Falling three times definitely wasn’t the race I wanted. I started off really well for the first two miles, and I guess I got exhausted.” Beyer stated about his performance, “I was a couple seconds off of my goal time for the race, but considering that I’d never seen the course before, I thought it went pretty well. I don’t regret any part of the race now. Having the mind set of “do as best as you can” helped relieve pres¬sure off of me, and that helped a lot. I would rate this experience a definite ten because it was really special to get to run with so many other great runners and see so many people that I idolize.”
