Recently, Page has had 2 of its cross country runners go to the state cross country meet. Clark Wahlberg is a senior and Nell Mclean is a freshman. It is both of their first times going to the state cross country meet and continues the, now 5 year streak of a girl from Page going to the state cross country meet. Both of these runners have contributed to the information shared in this story. 

Both of these runners have been participating in the sport since prior to middle school. They must keep a consistent workout routine to be sure that they can continue running these long distances without getting injured. 

Each runner that made it to this meet runs from about 10 to 15 minutes before they even go to the meet to make sure that they are loose and in a good condition to compete. They then get to the meet about 2 hours before their race starts. Once at the meet location they do another 12 to 15 minute warmup run, followed by drills, stretching, and strides. They also put on shoes depending on the type of race like spikes which help grip the ground for better traction. After the race occurs they do a 10 to 20 minute cooldown run with dynamic and static cooldown drills. These warmup and cooldown activities are vital to the runner remaining uninjured and in their optimal athletic condition. 

This year Page has gotten a new coach for the team named Coach Shanklin. He has helped bring in high level workouts for the team. He has helped many runners improve their times and has tailored workouts specifically for each runner. Different practices focus on different types of workouts, which not only allows for variety but also to exercise different muscle groups that are needed for cross country. 

The cross country scoring system is based off of the top 5 runners’ results from 1 team in a race. The runner gives their team the number of points that their placement is, so 1st gives 1 point and so on. The team with the least number of points secures the victory. 

Both of Page’s state meet runners are proud that they made it to the state meet, with it being Clark’s goal since he started running high school cross country as a freshman. Nell is happy that she made it, originally not knowing that she had. They are both excited to see what they can achieve as the indoor and outdoor track seasons start up soon.