Cross Country Contestants
The cross country season begins to wrap up as runners win awards
Nate Maples races towards the finish line on Oct. 14
Pirate cross country runners had a great season, with many awards given to the athletes across the weeks. Junior Nate Maples is among the athletes that has been having a successful season. Maples broke a North Callaway course record with a time of just over 16 minutes, and is just a few seconds away from having a school record.
“There weren’t a ton of people at the race, I knew what the record was and I just kinda went for it, and I ended up getting it. It was originally like 16:30, and I ended up beating it by 20 seconds,” Maples said.
This record was a new personal best for Maples, and he now has a new goal for his senior season.
“It’s 5 kilometers, so 3.1 miles race, so he’s basically run 3.1 miles in 16 minutes so it’s very fast and his goal is to break 16 now, which puts him in the top maybe 25 to 30 kids in the state,” Cross Country Coach Paul Wright said.
Many athletes on the team have been setting new personal records for themselves as they attend more events.
“Our whole team has had success, it’s been crazy, I’ve never succeeded like this and I’ve never seen a team succeed like we have, and I’ve been here for a long time and we’re all doing really good,” Maples said.
During the GAC race, the boys team won the GAC varsity title, and the North JV competition as well. Twenty-two Pirate runners returned with medals, with Elisia Case winning the JV race, Taylor Nash winning the girls JV race, and Nate Maples winning second in the boys varsity race. Overall, six boys qualified as all-conference runners during the event.
“The boys were dominant, they won the GAC varsity title, and they won the GAC North JV competition too, and they ran really well. In fact we had 22 athletes come back with medals across the boys and the girls,” Wright said.
The team attended the District competition on Saturday, Oct. 29. The race went great for the Pirates, with Maples winning the district individual crown for the team by just 9 seconds, finishing in 17:03. Senior captain Jack Case, junior Sam Bland, and junior Luke Nottmeyer finished in the top 30. Those four athletes will attend the State championship on Nov. 4 in Jefferson City.
