The Westside cross country teams put their best foot forward at the Class of the Metro Meet at Walnut Creek Park on Saturday, Aug. 26. Nine runners were in the top 10 in their divisions, and the girls placed fifth overall.
Stella Miner and Claire White really stole the show coming in first and second place respectively in the senior division. Miner finished in a time of 18:55.20 and White ran 19:08.6.
Miner and White aren’t letting the pressure of consistently running well stress them out.
“It’s a lot of pressure but I think Claire and I are going to be sharing it as we go through the season, and in the end it’s no different than how previous seasons have been,” Miner said.
White finished as the runner-up, just 13 seconds behind Miner.
“I honestly like the pressure, but I think I like being told I’m the underdog even more. Pressure is kind of helpful I think, so I’m not that stressed by it,” White said.
The recruitment process has been going well for both runners with both runners planning on visiting colleges later this fall.
“I have my top five schools selected [Iowa, Iowa St., Nebraska, Colorado St., and Kansas] so every weekend I’m in a different college town for a visit, but I’m trying to enjoy the process because you only get it once,” White said.
On the boys side of things, Conor Gross and Jayden Wall did well in their divisions too. Gross came in second in the junior division and Wall came in ninth in the senior division.
Head coach Theresa Gosnell attributes all these fast times to all of the work they put in over the summer.
“The runners have been putting in the base miles this summer to help them be successful,” Gosnell said.
With this good of running so early into the season a coach might be worried about their runners gassing out too early into the season, but Gosnell believes that these fast times won’t hinder their future performances.
“When we get the meets at the end of the season, the athletes are more recovered from workouts and their legs are more fresh,” Gosnell said.
The Warriors will be back in action on Friday Sept. 8. At the Platte River Rumble.
