SFHS Cross Country Runs Well on Tough Course

11/1/2022

Charlie Coyle ‘24

As most people on St. Francis Cross Country know, there are no guarantees when running at Harvest Christian Academy, which is part of the reason why it's so important to return to Harvest Christian's meet every year. Not only is the course 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) rather than the normal 3 miles, but the course also has a decent portion of woodchips and hills, which are both a struggle to run on. However, for St. Francis' team, they enjoy these aspects of the course, as it helps the team train for future meets.

As mentioned before, the course is particularly difficult, which is part of the reason that the team decides to run there so often. As Brendan Spahn '24 explains, "some of us have run that course up to seven times," which clearly shows how the team has found the course beneficial year after year. Spahn continues by reflecting on how "the level of exhaustion is higher than it is usually because of the hill we run up three times." This level of difficulty is extreme compared to most other courses, so the team chooses to run at Harvest Christian every year to become stronger as a whole. After all, the hill training on a rough course will help the team mentally as St. Francis approaches important meets.

At this most recent Harvest Christian meet on September 24th, St. Francis finished unsurprisingly well. Out of 19 teams, the men's Varsity team finished 3rd, and the women's Varsity team finished 1st, with both Junior Varsity teams also having solid finishes. Not only this, but St. Francis represented five runners that finished in the top 10 in their respective races. As the team's motto states, "tough runs don't last, tough runners do," and this was very evident in this difficult meet late in the season!