Over the weekend our Fort Scott Greyhounds participated in our programs very first Cross Country meet. The meet took place in Winfield, KS. This was a duel hosted by Cowley Community College and Southwestern College. Our Greyhound's, still early in the seasons training, started the race with a very relaxed race plan that they all executed perfectly.
For our Lady Greyhound's Emma Davis led the way with a time of 22:37. In the weeks to come Emma seeks out for new personal records in the event and breaking the time of 21:00. Following Emma was Aaliyah Villalabos. Aaliyah ran a time of 25:22, running a strong first race of the season coming from little cross country experience. Aaliyah, a member of the Fort Scott Track program, will focus on the Pole Vault after the cross country season comes to an end. Our final runner for the weekend was Katelyn Yeamans with a time 30:22. The time disappointed Katelyn who is an experienced runner with previous times closer to that of teammates Aaliyah and Emma. Katelyn will surely see improvements through the season and looks to become one of our top runners. Other Lady Greyhounds who took a cheering role this weekend due to injury and illness included Mallory Westhoff, Josie Paisley, and Jessica Reese.
Taking the lead for our Greyhounds was Albert Maliko with a time of 16:55! Albert ran smoothly and passed a lot of competitors in the second half of the race. Albert new to higher mileage has new high hopes for the season, with his eyes now on a top National Finish. Following Albert was a pack of runners consisting of Tim Smith (18:03), Raymond Longoria (19:10), Colton Chapman (19:14), Roosevelt Garcia (20:05), Nick Shelton (20:28) and Travis Wentz (20:37). The Greyhounds had similar instructions to take the race slowly, went out not racing but just participating in the team's first meet. It was beneficial for the athletes to see some competition and see what it's going to take to be one of the top teams in the Conference.
From the Coach -
I was very impressed with our top female and male runners, Emma and Albert followed the race plan and stayed relaxed and at a relatively slow pace for the first half of the race. Nearing the second mile both of them looked very relaxed so I let them let it loose a little bit to see what they could do. I'm shocked that without any training aside from mileage runs that the two of them were able to see such times. For Albert I believe that was already a personal record (PR) in the 5k. The rest of our team did what I instructed and took it very slow and relaxed. Through the next couple months of training they will be introduced to tempo runs, repeats, and more mileage training. This will allow them to slowly move forward with the season and see some PR's for the entire team. As a coach I am proud of our young team for what we have begun here at Fort Scott, and I have confidence that these young men and women can accomplish great things.