PCS cross country team races to Sept. 2 season start
The 2021 cross country season has begun, and the first meet will be Thursday, Sept. 2 at North Platte beginning at 4 p.m.
This year’s team consists of 12 students, five girls and seven boys total. Coach Seth Burge is entering his third year of coaching the sport, with assistant coach Tristan Stephenson at his side.
Three freshmen have joined the boys team: Mason McGreer, Parker Tille and Brock Tines. The boys team also includes juniors Johan Mireles and Brient Wood, and seniors Jordan Mireles and Colton Pouk.
Burge observed the boys team has quite a bit of potential, with returning state qualifier Pouk on the team once more, and he said the incoming freshmen and new runners had a tremendous summer of running and are coming into the season with many summer miles under their belts.
“I expect McGreer to be in the front of the pack with Pouk, and Tines not far behind,” he added.
The girls team includes sophomores Maggie Fisher,, Ava Reese and Selah Richter-Martinez, junior Meredith Gloy and senior Hallie Fisher.
Burge noted that both of the Fisher girls are coming into the season with good base miles from the summer running program, and Reese and Richter-Martinez have been working hard during the first weeks of practice so he believes it will be fun to watch their season progress.
Pouk, Wood and Gloy are the team’s only returning runners from last year.
Pouk placed 31st at the 2020 Class D State Cross Country Meet, and Burge said Gloy and Wood have been leaders of their respective teams as underclassmen.
The boys team, according to Burge, is about average size compared to recent years. The girls team, on the other hand, has grown thanks to the recruitment efforts of Gloy, who was Perkins County’s only female runner in 2019.
“In 2020 the NSAA changed the Class D varsity team size from six runners to five,” Burge said. “This is the first year since 2017 that PCS has had full boys and girls cross country teams.”
Burge noted practices have been going well, and each of the runners have been working hard, including logging miles over the summertime.
Mason McGreer and Meredith Gloy earned spots in the 100 mile club for the Perkins County Cross Country Summer Running Club, and Hallie Fisher along with junior high students Maggie Fisher and Myles Bishop made the 50 mile club.
Each of these students received t-shirts for making their respective mile clubs, and Gloy and McGreer have also earned the ability to create one team workout during the regular season.
“Our summer running club is open to all 7-12 students,” Burge said, adding that they met every Tuesday in June and July. “It provides incentive and encouragement to put in the base miles that are required leading into our short season.”
Many new runners, he continued, are realizing just how much of a mental sport cross country is.
The team will have logged 13 days of official practice by their first meet at the beginning of September.
“The first meet is always exciting with a young team like this,” Burge noted. “Early season meets are usually warmer than we’d like, so acclimation during these first few weeks of practice will be important.”
He added the runners are familiar with heat acclimization and they often review the signs of heat stroke and discuss how they can prevent it with hydration and awareness of symptoms.
“The heat adds another element to the difficulty of running on gravel roads, but we lucked out with a cooler day last Friday for our ‘long run’ out in the country,” Burge continued.
The team will compete in six regular season meets, including SPVA, from Sept. 2 to Oct. 7. The District meet is set for Oct. 14 and State will follow Oct. 22.