Over the river, through the woods
CFHS cross country team heads toward finish of season
Bjorn Pearson heads for the finish line
After a hard 9-mile run on Tuesday and a warm up run on Wednesday, Katherine Hoffman, better known as Kat, was ready for her 5k run at the Dakota County Fairgrounds on Thursday. She warmed up her muscles and got ready for the course ahead of her. Kat got into her starting position and waited for the gun to go off. With her mind set on being ranked high on the team to secure her spot at Conference and Sections, Kat was ready to make some time drops. She ran a steady pace picking it up near the end. There was just one girl in front of her in third place. Kat was determined to pass her and earn her top 3 spot. She ran just a bit harder, as fast as her legs could take her. She blew past the girl leaving her in fourth place. Kat crossed the finish line, feeling very successful from yet another great race.
Cannon Falls has a small but fast cross country team. With just 10 total Varsity members, the Cannon Falls girls team has earned 6th, 4th, 9th, and 2nd place out of up to 25 teams. Boys cross country, with 8 varsity members, has received high places such as 9th, 5th, and 2nd place. The team prepares for races by running from as little as 3 miles to as much as 9 miles in a practice. “Practices are really fun because we get the whole team together. Everybody’s out there, running with each other. It’s just getting the team together, running as a pack and doing workouts,” junior, Amanda Wulf, reflecting back on previous practices.Tami Vagts
These tough workouts lead to great results. As the season wears on, the runners keep improving more and more. “They have improved dramatically. Their workouts have increased, they’re finally in shape, and just getting better every meet,” Coach Schopp says about the team.
Before almost every meet, the cross country team of 29 goes over to a runner’s house to have a spaghetti feed. “My favorite part of spaghetti feeds is definitely the spaghetti. We do so much stuff like hang out as a team and we do some team bonding and some sports, while trying not to hurt each other. It is just a good overall time,” senior and captain, Bjorn Pearson, states.
On Tuesday, October 20th, was the Conference meet held in Zumbrota. CF was racing against other teams such as Pine Island and Zumbrota. Kat beat every girl runner at the meet to earn herself a first place finish. Pearson also ran faster than almost every male except for four of them, winning a well-deserved fifth place finish. There were many girls and boys on the Cannon Falls cross country team looking for a spot to qualify for Sections by placing in the top 7 CF runners. The top seven then move on to Sections on Thursday, October 29th.
Coach Schopp and the runners are excited to see where the end of the season will be for these strong runners.
Lindy Edstrom is a co-editor for the news category. She is a senior who participates in many activities like Interact, church leader, student council,...