Dangerous Prepper Cross Country team heads into the postseason

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Jack O'Neill, Staff Writer

As the distance-Preppers have turned the corner into late October, the post season is lurking.With districts in less than 48 hours, the Preppers know what it has to take to advance to the regional meet. Feeling ‘Dangerous’ from improved times this season, the cross country team is looking to improve on its 8th place finish last year, and once again have a late postseason run.

 

With 4 seniors this year, the group of veteran Preppers will ride with experience into our upcoming postseason. In my opinion, the thing that separates this year’s roster from the last, is our experience. Last year, 4 of the 7 varsity runners were without high school cross country experience. This year, the team will have 0 district runners without high school experience before this season. Becoming more familiar with courses this year, the team can use this experience running previous courses to apply different strategies, in the postseason. The experience that this year’s squad has is a big part of the drastic time differences compared to last year. Senior captain Ryan Streem went from being in the 17:50 range, to 16:50’s this year.  Senior Evon Gocan Broke sub 17 for the first time in his career, clocking in at 16:58. Senior Cam Bizjak is also in the low 17 range, along with sophomore Quinn Macphail. The Preppers will all have to run PRs to advance to regionals, as other schools in the district have also improved their times. When I asked Senior Caption Cam Bizjak on his mentality going into the postseason, he responded, “I’m feeling dangerous.” A simple yet effective answer, and the whole team knows what it will take to have a postseason going into late October and early November.

 

In 48 hours the Preppers will once again run in the district meet. With aspiring goals of running PRs, the team will run confidently, and dangerously. The squad will use their experience to run a smart, and fast time on Saturday afternoon, as they don’t want to make it their last.