Cross country teams qualify for state
The finish line is in sight, but the season isn’t over yet. After months of training, racking up hardware and running many miles, the Yutan-Mead cross country teams secured their spot into state, with one final race ahead of them.
The cross country team traveled to the Kearney Country Club on Oct. 23 to compete at state. In order to qualify for state, the teams had to place top three at the district meet, which was held Oct. 14 at Boys Town.
“I knew the girls were sitting third (at districts) and the boys were sitting fourth and we needed the top three teams to go to state,” coach Joel Carrillo said. “My only thought was, are we going to do this or not?”
Sophomore Clayton Steinbach, who placed ninth at districts, and freshman Ben Popken, who placed 13th, medaled in every meet prior to districts. Freshman Ainsley Carlson, who placed 10th at districts, medaled in every meet except one. These three runners were crucial for the team and the teams’ ride to state.
“I got to experience the fun of cross country while also getting the reward,” Popken said.
Carrillo has been coaching cross country for eight years and had never taken a single team to state. Carrillo and his assistant coach Alyssa Hansen had been anxiously waiting for the district team scores to be uploaded online.
“It took a long time for the scores to upload, so we thought we were out of it,” Carrillo said. “Then we found out we were third and we were jumping for joy around and danced a lot in front of strangers.”
Steinbach, a first-year runner, had mixed feelings going into the district meet at Boys Town. While feeling confident personally, he was worried about not beating a Boys Town runner and falling short to let the team finish in fourth place.
“If I didn’t place good or let a certain team beat me, then it could have affected our overall team score,” Steinbach said.
Carlson had a larger goal than just making it to the state meet. One of her focuses throughout the season was improving each time she ran. According to Carlson, she knew how important it was for the team to make it to state and her important role in that. It was the first time in program history that the girls team had qualified for state.
“I wanted to make it to state,” Carlson said. “I also set a new PR.”
Sophomore and second-year runner Lauren Blomendahl had already accomplished a major goal by moving from the junior varsity squad to the varsity team late in the season. Blomendahl was the seventh-fastest runner on her team, which wasn’t fast enough to be on varsity.
According to Blomendahl, the team ran a trail run in practice to determine who would be on varsity the rest of the season. She eventually beat out the sixth runner, moving her up to the fifth-fastest time on the team to secure her varsity running spot.
On the bus ride to the district meet, Blomendahl said she was “shivering in my boots” the whole time.
“It feels like I actually helped accomplish what we made, making it to state,” Blomendahl said.
Veteran runner Caleb Popken had struggled to see the success he wanted throughout this season. Popken, a junior, told himself that he was not going to focus on getting a PR and just run his race. Popken’s focus was on helping the team qualify for state.
“All I had to do was catch this Boys Town guy,” Popken said. “If I did, then I could get the whole team to state.”
At the beginning of the season, Carrillo gave his runners a “pre-race” talk and at the end of the season, he gave them a “reflection” talk on how they did in their season.
“I just remind them to not look like a rookie and don’t go out too fast,” Carrillo said. “At the end, I do a quick flashback to every hard workout and fun the season was and nothing can stop us.”
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