On Friday, October 24, Parker’s boys cross country team brought home the first team regional title in Parker history.
While every team goes to regionals, not every team moves on to sectionals. In past years, the boys cross country team has typically finished in the top three competing teams as a whole, which qualifies them to play at sectionals. However, they have never finished first as a team at regionals before. Going into this year’s regional race, the athletes were aware of their chances of actually winning.
“Once Coach Nathan told us that, we all started taking practice more seriously,” junior and boys cross country team member William McCloskey said. “It’s not just about training hard, it’s about making sure you’re rested on race day so you can actually perform well when it counts.”
While winning was a possibility, McCloskey also knew that such a task would not be easy. “We’ve never really had an opportunity like this before, with enough of our runners being consistently fast enough to contend for the regional title,” McCloskey said, “so it was a challenge dealing with the pressure to succeed.”
The team competed in the three mile race on the Lincoln Park South Fields grass, a distance that they had grown accustomed to running throughout the season. Each team was allowed seven runners, who all competed in the race. For each team’s score, however, the five best finishing placements of the seven runners were added together, and Parker, having the lowest total score, won.
“I think the fact that we knew we had this opportunity to make Parker history really brought out the best in us and pushed us to new heights,” McCloskey said.
To achieve this win, many of the runners ran their personal best. Junior Jack Bartlett beat his personal record by almost two minutes, freshman Charlie Gilligan by over a minute, McCloskey and sophomore Luke Pavlidis by over 30 seconds, and senior Noah Michenaud by 11 seconds.
Michenaud and McCloskey both finished in the top ten, with Michenaud finishing in eighth place with a time of 18 minutes and 13 seconds, and McCloskey finishing in tenth place with a time of 18 minutes and 24 seconds.
“We were all so proud of ourselves and each other,” McCloskey said, reflecting on the team’s performance. “When we got the championship plaque we all took turns holding it because it was a massive group effort.”
Senior and cross country team captain Jojo Husbeck echoed this, saying that “this year, the boys team was truly exceptional and it was amazing to see them work together as a team in a sport that is usually seen as individual.” Senior and captain Delilah Davis also agreed, commenting that “all of them worked so hard for the win, and it was amazing watching them demolish the competition in one of their final runs of the season.”
With seniors Michenaud, Nash Oliphant, and Xavier Irons all graduating, “[the cross country team] will lose a lot of fast runners,” McCloskey said. “Despite this, looking at the younger members of our team, I have no doubt that they can fill the spaces that the seniors will leave behind and improve even more as athletes.”
