Two people run side by side, each stride of their leg longer and faster than before. One of them pulls in front of the other, as they wind up and down the undulating path.  St. Edward’s Cross Country team ran, breathed, and suffered to the best of their ability this season. In the view of the players, this season was a major success due to the effort all members of the team put into the sport. Freshman Sophie and Senior Maxwell Holland, an underclassman and upperclassman set of siblings, agreed that they were able to improve on their entire set of skills this season from where they left off last year.

These improvements were greatly inspired by the team’s new coach, Ken Folger, who was loved by the team. Maxwell Holland remarks about the change in coaching, “It was a big difference”, but he was pleasantly surprised by the experience the Coach held. He noted that his coaching style was different than previously, but he had “very good concepts” and was knowledgeable about form, mindset, focus on races, and not giving up. Sophie noted that Coach Folger helped her to fix her form, which massively improved her running.

However, not everything was perfect for St. Edward’s runners this season.  Both the boys’ and girls’ teams only had 4 members, which does not fulfill the requirement to have 5 members to be an official team. This caused it to be difficult to measure how well the team would race against other schools since it was hard to measure their paces against those of the other teams. Maxwell noted that the biggest improvement he would give to make for runners is to attempt to convince more students to join the team. He says, “We need a group of people willing to put in the work”. Ultimately, Maxwell thinks people need to have the mindset to do something difficult that has a good reward.

Despite the negatives of the team, there was a family atmosphere between them. Sophie said regarding the team’s relationship, “everyone knows everyone” and that they were all “really close”. One of the things that brought the team together was the pain they went through from running. Maxwell noted that this may have been the catalyst for friendships to form, as people tend to group together during hardship. Maxwell also remembered a practice when it was cold and raining, and claimed it to be the best practice. The entire team worked hard and had fun at a playground afterward, despite the disgusting sand pit. Overall, Sophie and Maxwell remarked that the season went well for the team, and many friendships and memories were made.