With the season coming to an end, the WHHS cross-country team has been working harder than ever to make sure they achieve their goal of making it to regionals. With both the boys’ varsity and the girls’ JV team placing second at the Firebird Invitational on Sep. 23, they are just one step closer to making this dream a reality. 

To make sure they stay in shape, the team practices five days a week during the school year and has optional conditioning six days a week over the summer. Along with this, the team has races each Saturday where they must run a total of 3.1 miles on a set course.

“Your body loses fitness if you don’t put in maximum effort,” Tyler Waldie, the Boys’ varsity cross-country coach, said. “Even the easy runs that we do in between workout days and before race days are still important for building fitness.”

The team has to practice this often so they are prepared to race and do their best no matter the circumstances.

“Districts is Oct. 21. If we place worse than fourth there, we don’t move on to regionals, so that’s pretty intense,” varsity boy’s team captain Cameron Bettinger, ‘25, said.

In addition, the rosters of JV and varsity can change a lot throughout the season. This can add a lot of pressure to the athletes in hopes that they do not fall in the rankings or potentially lose their spot.

“Some races we only need seven people to make the varsity seat, so some guys fight for that seventh spot, and if they’re close in time they’ll absolutely form a little bit of a rivalry to get that last spot,” Bettinger said.

Though this can provide additional stress for the runners, it can also push them to perform to the fullest of their abilities.

“Those people that are on the cusp, just about to make the varsity squad, or are the last couple people on the varsity squad, they want to push themselves actually harder. So I wouldn’t necessarily say that they feel the pressure, but really they respond to it,” Waldie said.

With issues like this causing tension to be high, it is important for the captains to keep morale high and make sure everyone focuses on the positive.

“You gotta lead by example,” Bettinger said. “It’s all about the little things like waving at people when you pass and saying like, ‘you got this’ or ‘half a mile left,’ that sort of thing.”

Since some of their most important meets of the season are just around the corner, the team has made team bonding a priority. They do this by going on team retreats, having Friday-themed practices, and having team meals together the night before each meeting.

“It’s definitely important to have a strong bond with your teammates because we push each other and we really get to know each other and we motivate each other during practices and during races when we try to stick together,” SENIOR Aidah Witte said.

Ultimately, while it may be stressful at times, the team has grown to be one of the most successful sports at WHHS, and as the team advances in placements, they also grow closer together.

“Cross country is a type of sport that feels like a family,” Waldie said. “It is great [for runners] to come into the school and they’ve already got 100 teammates that they can rely on, [that] they can see in the hallways and be like, ‘Oh, hey, I know that person, I’m not here alone.’  You’ve got a strong support system. And that’s really cool thing to have.”