Winning a conference championship is a serious feat for any school and it is definitely not an easy task. For the cross-country team, they are running to the finish line, leaving the competition in the dust.
Coach Nathan Newsome had some goals for the team this year, hoping to see improvement from all the players.
“I hope we can improve as much as we can this year, I know that it sounds kinda generic but where you finish is kind of relative to how everyone else does,” Newsome said.
Knowing now that the goal is the championship, there is a major challenge, as the competition is very tough this year.
“Our region is extremely difficult, so to advance to the state championship would be fantastic,” Newsome said.
Senior LuLu Serang and junior Gunnar Douglass are some of the strongest runners in the competition. Serang has had two top-five finishes this season. Serang’s secret: to always push herself and her teammates so they can be the best version of themselves.
“Telling yourself to keep running and to keep pushing forward,” Serang said.
Douglass has also strongly impacted the male runners this season, whether it be through his leadership, or providing motivation. Douglass has two top-ten finishes so far and had a strong placement of eighth in the Central Piedmont Conference Championship.
The CPC Championship was the first of two meets that dictated the outcome of all the hard work this season. The Titans placed fourth in the boys’ 5,000 meters and the girls placed high with a second-place finish in the girls’ 5,000 meters featuring senior LuLu Serang, sophomore Lily Baugh and sophomore Tatum Snow all placing top-10.
The biggest obstacle for the team was the NCHSAA 4A Midwest Regional in Kernersville, which decided whether or not the runners would go to the State Championship. The boys placed seventh out of the 24 teams participating, and the girls placed fifth out of 22 teams participating. Two boys made it to the state championship: junior Gunnar Douglass and sophomore Nicholas Winsor. Douglass finished 82nd followed closely by Winsor finishing 85th, making them both finish in the top half of the competition. Seven girls made it to the state championship and three runners finished in the top half. Sophomore Tatum Snow finished 60th, sophomore Lily Baugh finished 64th and senior Lulu Serang finished 79th. As a whole, the girls placed 17th out of the 22 teams in the competition.
The cross-country team has had a very successful season and shows great promise for the future. The team has demonstrated that with hard work and dedication, it will always provide great results.
