This past Saturday the Center Grove girls and boys cross country teams were both won sectional titles, with the boys placing six runners on the All-Sectional team and the girls placing five runners. Tomorrow, the teams will compete with the Shelbyville regional, looking to improve upon last year’s standings where the girls were 11th and the boys were 7th.
The only Center Grove runner who qualified for state as an individual last season was Cameron Cox, a senior on this year’s team. Cox hopes that the whole team can earn the chance to race at LaVern Gibson for the state championship, which would require a Top 5 finish at tomorrow’s regional.
“I think we can be top three at regionals,” Cox said. “That’s a solid goal. Fishers is a tough team to beat, but we all have worked hard all season. Coach Harrell knows when to peak us at the perfect time.”
In order to achieve these goals, the team has been supporting each other and holding each other accountable to do the little things that will ultimately make a difference. Junior Yared Seyoum, who finished as the individual county champion this year, emphasizes his connection with teammates.
“Everyone’s been really locked in and focused,” Seyoum said. “There’s a lot of encouragement going around; whether it’s during workouts, in school, or just keeping each other accountable. We’ve been checking in on each other more and trying to stay connected.”
Earlier in the season, when the team won the county championship, Seyoum finished as the individual champion with a PR. At regionals, he hopes to improve on this PR.
“My individual goal for regionals is to run a 15:30,” Seyoum said. “This has been a benchmark I’ve been working toward all season, and I feel like I’m in a good spot to hit it based on recent workouts and races.”
After the disappointment last year of not qualifying for the state meet, the team’s extra preparation in practices gives them confidence that this year will be different.
“The team is confident and very excited to race,” Cox said. “We have big goals and are ready to showcase that CG is not playing around when it comes to state meet time.”
To compete with the top teams in the regional, the team knows they must be aggressive in the first kilometer of the race. With Hamilton Southeastern projected to finish second by INCC Stats, the team knows the key will be placing five runners ahead of HSE’s third.
“For regionals I’m gonna get out in the top ten,” junior Jayden Salo said. “After the first K I’m going to sit behind the first pack of guys until the last 2k. There, I’m going to start picking up my speed. For the last K I’ll go all out and go for 3rd place.”
For the girls, Meisberger also emphasizes the team’s success being the most important part. Her goal is that the team can put together a state qualifying performance.
“I’m hoping the team makes it to state if we all run our best times,” Meisberger said. “If not I hope we just keep racing with each other since we’ve trained together all season and know we have the ability to keep going. We’ve worked all season long, so I’m hoping we can all get personal records at the least.”
In order to prepare the girls to peak at the right time, Head Coach Wesley Dodson adjusted the team’s training.
“I think that the only change is that we’re going 80% of our mileage,” Dodson said. “We keep our intensity high, just not as much mileage. The lesser mileage keeps them fresher than we have been the last few races.”
When preparing for postseason races, nerves are at their peak. Each race could be the last. In these moments, support from teammates is more important than ever.
“Our team is pretty close so we’ve had teammates come to our meets to support us, even though their season is over,” Meisberger said. “We also just continue to support each other before and after our races since we know how hard our sport is mentally, and that we’re all proud of each other no matter what.”
Similarly to the boys, after their extra preparation and with support from teammates, the team is coming into regionals with excitement and momentum.
“I think we’re really positive,” Dodson said. “We’ve won the last four races we’ve been in. We have a good streak. We’ll see what happens.”
