Becoming All-State In Cross Country

I refused to ever let someone replace me on the track again. Not only did I earn that respect, I demanded it. My workouts were no longer a social hour, but a boot camp. I was the hardest working undersized athlete in the program. My junior track season finally arrived, yet once again I would not have the chance to compete for a junior varsity district championship. No, this year I competed for a varsity district championship. My efforts in the offseason led to a promotion on the team. The lingering emotions of anger and disappointment were replaced with gleaming pride. My previous failure had propelled me to success within a single

When I first joined cross country I was not fast nor a runner. I was one of the slowest people on the team, but I wanted to get faster and I was determined to improve. Some days we would do a hills workout and I would get to the top of the longest hill and think, “I could just run back to Armstrong right now and be done”. But then, I thought about how if I did another hill, I would get better and some time during a race when there was a big hill I would look at it like it’s nothing. I could go up the hill easily and pass a couple girls. So I would do another hill. Then the next time we did hills I rememberd how many I did the last time and pushed myself to do one more. Through that cross country showed me that I could be faster and tougher than I thought I was if I put in the effort and want it

A significant challenge that I thought I wouldn't have accomplished was during our biggest track-and-field meet against all of the big schools around. It was the Shawnee invitational and one of our girls on the track team ended up messing up her ankle in her first relay race, which meant she couldn't run the 800m dash or the 1800m dash. I was the only one on the team who didn’t have four events because I ran the 4x2 and the 4x1 which was the main events at the invitational. So the coach asks me to fill in for her, my first thought was ‘oh Nooooooo, i can’t”. Not only did I just finish one on my relays and had to rest up for my next one, but also I was not ready to run only distant runs that day. I had only practiced for my events prior to the

In other sports, it’s difficult to analyze a player's involvement in the game. There are so many factors, and no concrete numbers to tell you how they did at the end. In Cross Country, you know how you did as soon as you look at your watch. I love being able to compare my times from week to week and year to year. When I look at my watch during the race, I know what I have to do to the achieve my goal. To be honest, I’m a pretty mediocre runner, so my goals are very small. I don’t plan on placing in races or beating team mates. I just want my time to get better week by week. This past season, I took four and a half minutes off of my time. Coach Hiedke told me that I’m the kind of person that can make their dreams come true, because he’s seen me do

Whether it be through an arduous practice or a race with an intimidating competitor, I constantly seek to remember that by allowing myself to consider that I am less than my ability, I am giving the opposition the right to overcome me. At the National and State meet of my sophomore year, I competed along side of a teammate whom I deeply respected due to her ability. Through the realization that we both train together and that she has no major advantage over me in the races, I was able to convince myself that she, in fact, did not have the right to beat me. This epiphany resulted in an increase of my self-confidence, which led me to a State Title and a new feeling of self-sufficiency.

Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.

“Good Job keep going, you can do it, run run faster, you got this!” These were the words coming from the audience as I was finishing my last 100 meters in the cold, pouring, rain during sectionals. I was in second place in my heat and my heart was thumping and I couldn't see through the water stains on my glasses, but I heard someone someone breathing hard and their spikes hitting the track as they ran behind me and I knew I had to push even harder.I remembered the rough trading I had in practice and knew I could do it.

We quickly received a summer training schedule and I started training. I soon came to the realization that this sport was just what I needed. Cross-country was the key that unlocked my jail cell, and I started dropping times – fast. As my freshman season came to a close, I ran a personal record (PR) of 19:49, somewhat rare among brand new runners. At around the same time, my dad received orders to move back to Pace, Florida, where I had spent part of my elementary school days. I joined my new team but unfortunately could not perform well. I didn’t run very much after my freshman season, so I basically had to start from scratch with a 25:05 time trial. As a result of hard work, I PR’d in my last race with a 19:36, but that wasn’t the highlight of the season. I had people helping me through this struggle the whole

Many activities I participate in require serious commitment. Most notably, I am the captain of the Cross Country team and on the varsity Track team here at Brookfield East. To be at peak performance, I must train every day. Although running is difficult, it is how I “seize the day.” To get to where I am now, it took countless hours and substantial dedication. Now I am at the end of the road, all the time I put into acheiving my goal was not in vain. I have become faster than I ever was before and have lead my teamates to do the same as we pushed each other and met with success. The demands of race also require a straightforward mindset focused on competing. The difficulties that were tolerated during the training and race are turned

I was a late-comer to athletics. So when the distance coach recruited me in tenth grade, it was a pleasant surprise to be half decent. I was deemed the most improved cross country runner in the nation, dropping six minutes for a 4K, landing me in my first state race. I have since been a contributing part of my varsity team. I have been All-Conference and All-Section for the past three years. This past year, my cross country team won state and nationals. I, myself, was runner-up in the team division at nationals. In Track and Field, I also competed at state. Running has become a huge part of my life, teaching me many lessons, especially that there is always room for

We were out for vengeance, and as the first heat came to a close, the three remaining teams lined up. Our team was Brandon Reid starting off the blocks, Isaiah running the second leg, me securing the third, and Bawa trying to end the race in strong fashion. As I loosened my legs up, the gun sounded, and I watched Brandon get off to a quick start. Before I knew it, Isaiah was 10m behind me and was ready to pass the baton. As I grabbed the baton from Isaiah, I noticed I was a few meters behind a kid from Avon. Never, ever again I thought. My legs planted and exploded off the ground in a simultaneous motion. I was like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. As the wind blew through my cleanly cut hair, I began to close the gap between myself and the man ahead. In the closing 20m, I tried my hardest to catch the Avon kid, but I couldn’t. As I passed the baton to Bawa, my heart sank. As my chin dipped to my chest so I could only notice the ground, I realized I did not run the fastest 100m. At the end of the race, we finished second behind Avon, again. My arms tensed and my stomach dropped. Losing to Avon was the worst possible ending to my track season. However, my head would be picked up by a more important event that followed days after the Founders League Tournament.

The 200 freestyle at WPIALS, the championship race for my section in highschool, did not turn out the way I wanted it to do. After practicing for three months I only dropped half a second in my race, finishing at 1:49:56, which is good in shorter races but I know I had more in me. The next week I could not stop thinking about what went wrong in my race. That weekend I swam a meet for my club team and went a 1:46:98, by learning from my failure I was able to get back up and succeed. Now, I know that all my hard work and failures will lead me to any goal that I set for

I approached that year’s conditioning with a pessimistic attitude and wondered why was I doing this when I’m not going to run in meets. Just like the year before, I assumed that conditioning and practicing would be obsolete. I braced myself for another disappointing year. Every winter day after school, I braced myself against the cold with a hope that this season would be different. I went into the first day of practice feeling in shape and optimistic. But just like freshman year, there was no preparing for the ache and suffering of the first practice. With the season approaching, our coach timed us to determine who would run in meets. Our coach divided us into groups based on how fast she thought we were. When a senior saw that I was in the first, slower group, he said that I belonged in the faster group with them. Hearing that compliment from a senior changed my outlook on the season might go. As the first track meet approached, we split off into groups so we could perfect our technique based on the event we were running. As I was jogging around the track wondering whether this year was going to be the same as last year, our coach summoned me over to perfect baton handoffs for the 4x100 meter relay. As the realization hit me that I was going to compete, I thought, “I’m not going to relinquish this spot because I labored profusely to attain

Mr. D. has coached at Wabasso for numerous years and has left a lasting impression on all of his runners. Mr. Dudgeon’s main priorities throughout all his years of coaching are to expand and improve his teams and, most importantly, to make sure everyone has fun. For instance, he puts unfathomable amounts of care and time into meticulously designing the perfect workout for each day of practice; he even does the workouts himself before he has our team run them. Furthermore, Mr. Dudgeon always makes sure that we feel prepared for the upcoming meets, and most importantly, he makes sure we are ready to “destroy the competition,” as he says. His infectious love for running, drive for success, and through-the-roof level of care for his athletes helps him build larger and more successful teams every year. To be specific, Mr. D. started with a cross country team composed of five girls and built it up to up to a conference-champion team of 10+ runners in a matter of only three years. The product of Mr. Dudgeon’s labor was a shiny cross country coach of the year plaque. Similarly, in a mere one year's

The clamor of a gunshot resounds amongst the silent crowd; your feet bounce off the starting blocks, and with a sense of vigor you have never shown before. You soar toward the finish line, only to come in last place. At the end of the track meet, you are bequeathed a medal as a testament to your participation, and a reminder that although you lost you still get a trophy. As the year continues you accumulate a multitude of these awards; you decide that you should stop trying to improve your performance, because after all you still get rewarded when you lose. The track season comes to a close you're given a varsity letter for your participation, and from that moment on you begin to believe that even if you fail you deserve a reward. You go on to live a lackluster never reaching your full potential, and what more could someone ask from you especially since you participated. Toward the last years of your far from spectacular existence, you begin to question where your award for barely living life is, because after all you’ve been taught you always get a prize once you finish a race.