You return a top 5 with a team average of 18:38 this year. How does the team look after summer practices so far?
This summer has gone better than years past. We have unique challenges with kids traveling throughout the summer and in some cases being gone for the entire summer but given the circumstances, which are the same every summer, I would have to say this summer has gone better than any other since I've been at Springs.
Any new additions to the team or surprises we can expect?
Yes. We have a couple of new commers in Ada Cohen who will be a freshmen this year. Ada is very talented and is a hard worker. I expect her to make an immediate impact right away. Issy Schwiebert is also running cross country for the first time and she has shown promise. She has trusted in the system and I believe she will be under 22 this year. We return Virginia Farley, Catherine Grady and Madeline Thomas.
On the guys side we lose our 1, 2, 5 which are tough to overcome. We do add Peter Scalise who will be a freshmen this year and will be in our top 5. Peter worked out with us all of last year but will finally be eligible this Fall. Mark Romero was in the same boat Peter was last year and will finally be eligible to compete this fall. Gavin Young will run cross country for the first time this year and has had a great summer. It's hard to say time wise what Peter, Mark and Gavin will be able to accomplish but I can tell you they are all putting in the work.
What is your schedule this season and are you changing anything up?
Last year we went to several big meets. I believe it's important for the kids to get into those big races and see the competition however I learned something about our athletes. At the meets where we would go to and might have 300+ people we tended to have sub par performances. Our guys would be having great races through the first mile and then things begin to fall apart. When we went to small invites or invites with smaller schools and we were more competitive we ran much better. I was confused because one of our runners might be in 50th place but on pace to smash their PR before it all crumbled. After talking with each individual on the team what I realized was they might be having the race of their life but psychologically they felt as though they weren't doing well thus letting that PR slip away. In races where we raced other 3A teams they ran great. When they were up front, being more competitive, they continued to race well not just the 1st half but also the 2nd. This is when I realized that with the way they are wired, I needed to change the schedule this year. We will still go to Chickasaw Trails & Jesse Owens but outside of that we will focus on TCBY 9/20, Shelby Co Championship 9/23, Helena 10/11, Hewit Trussville 10/18, Sections 10/30 & State 11/8.
What goals has your team established for this season?
It may be oversimplified but keep improving. Continuing to add more mileage for our upper class-man while trying to create the excitement for cross country that hasn't always existed at our school. Success breeds success, when the cross country team continues to improve and becomes one of the better programs at the school, other kids will want to be apart of something great. To compliment a nearby school, it's the Mountain Brook Affect. Recruiting others in the school becomes easier when kids want to be apart of a winning tradition.
| Indian Springs (AL) | ||||
| 1) Hill Balliet | 18:01.90 | |||
| 2) Eli Cohen | 18:10.60 | |||
| 3) Thomas Barr | 18:28.20 | |||
| 4) Ramsey Rossman | 18:36.10 | |||
| 5) Sam Newton | 19:56.90 | |||
| Average Time: 18:38.74 Total Time: 1:33:13.70 1-5 Split: 1:55.00 | ||||
| 6) Jackson White | 20:32.14 | |||
| 7) Ethan Ryu | 20:35.90 | |||