The cross-country team has been jam-packed this fall and especially now with districts.  Districts were on Saturday, October 27 at Parkway Central and state was on November 5 at Mizzou’s NCAA cross country course.  

The cross country team ran a total of 10 meets this year. Senior Meghan Jachna has been on the cross country team for one year.  The day before a meet is very important to Meghan to make sure she stays hydrated and keeps her legs ready for the meet.

“ My favorite run to prepare for meets was the run at Creve Coeur Lake because it was a beautiful location. The day I ran here was a nice sunny day with a light breeze and I had a lot of energy,” Meghan said.

Here is how Senior Kaitlin Einwalter said she normally goes out the night before and eats pasta

“ Carboloading is a real thing!,” she said. “Then we meet at the conference after our meal and talk about the season we had, getting motivated for tomorrow, and the seniors normally give a speech. The next morning, we eat something light before driving to the course.”

All teams got there pretty early to warm up. The teams put on their spikes which not all people may be familiar with.

“It is like putting on slippers with long metal spikes on the bottom that dig into hills,” Kaitlin said.

Some of the cross-country members have superstitions they need to do before the race, but for Kaitlin, she just needs to prepare mentally.  She said when she was younger she would stress herself out but now she tries to relax and really enjoy the fun atmosphere at state.   

For those that don’t know, points are assigned based on the place you finish. If a runner finishes first, he/she will earn 1 point. For example, finishing 55th would earn 55 points. Cross Country is similar to golf in that the lowest score wins. A perfect score is 15 points, with the top five runners occupying the first five finishing positions.

St. Joe has qualified for state three years in a row and finished 10th at state this year.  They were only 24 points from being in 5th place.  Way to go Angels!