story by Katherine Green, photos by Meg Thompson

With every new school year brings a new wave of fall sport athletes. Teams often have a varying number of new freshmen trying out for a sport, a lot one year and maybe less the next. However, cross country at STA consistently attracts many new runners each year, according to head coach and STA alumna Karen Moran.

“I think because we make it fun and the girls can each set their own personal goals and also a team goal within the same sport,” Moran said. “That’s something that I think is attractive to many girls. It is both team and individual.”

Moran has coached cross country at STA for the past 16 years. As well as Moran, there are five other coaches. Assistant coaches Bobby Tonnies and Linda Stowers attend practice everyday while the other three help at meets.

To try out for the cross country team, students must complete three miles under the time limit of 28 minutes. If the student doesn’t reach this criteria, they have the option to keep trying until they make it. Although many students claim they dislike running, most runners tend to stay on the team all four years, such as Moran did during her high school career at St. Teresa’s. According to Moran, the team usually has at least 50 girls per season.

“I didn’t like running at all [at first],” STA senior and cross country captain Ann Campbell said. “I think it’s just the people on the team that make it fun.”

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Campbell, like many other new freshmen at the time, was encouraged by her mother to join the team. After starting the season, Campbell said she grew to enjoy not only the sport but the team as well.

“I like how it’s more of a family-type team, and how the seniors really involve the freshmen,” freshman runner Monica Looney said. “They have us do dress-up themes on Friday and they run with us.”

This year there are 50 runners on the team, according to Moran. Of the team, 25 are returning runners and 25 are new runners. The team has meets almost every week that are usually five kilometers, or 3.1 miles long.

However, not all freshmen cross country runners are beginners. Junior Claire Jefferson ran five kilometer races with her family and a half marathon in eighth grade prior to cross country at STA.

“I think it’s good exercise,” Jefferson said. “Also, I know a lot of schools have track programs for fifth through eighth graders now, a lot more than they did a few years ago so a lot of runners are just flowing in from there.”

As well as being a good source of exercise, team dinners and themed runs on Fridays create a fun atmosphere that draws runners in, according to Campbell.

“Team dinners are really fun,” Campbell said. “I think that’s another thing that attracts runners. They’re at someone’s house and there is just a lot of pasta. We usually just talk. Sometimes there’s dancing or something like that, but we usually just talk and eat.”

Throughout a STA student’s running career for cross country, the coach keeps records of each girl’s personal best, according to Moran. Each time a runner breaks her record, the coach make a point to tell the girl and congratulate her.

“[Cross country attracts] some of the best students at STA, the high achievers, who really like to push themselves because this a sport where you can push yourself to the limit,” Moran said. “It’s fun to see how far [STA runners] can push themselves and how much they can lower their time.”