Junior Nassor Whitehead finishes a race. Great efforts by many Cowboy runners have been the keys to their success. Photo Courtesy of Bob Nichols
BY ALYSSA FISHER
Through the blazing heat and pouring rain, they keep running. Ignoring the unfavorable Florida weather conditions, CCHS’s cross-country team prevails, running for hours after school to better themselves for their team. They end their practices with beet red faces and sweat-drenched bodies, proving that in any condition they’re ready to work hard and deserve the successful season they’ve had.
CCHS has always had a strong cross-country team, but this season was one of the most successful yet. With the boys currently at 28-7 (28 wins, 7 losses) and the girls at 26-9 (26 wins, 9 losses), the team has made coach Bob Nichols’s proud.
“This season went very well,” Nichols said. “The boys have exceeded expectations and the girls have been a pleasant surprise.”
Nichols, who has been volunteering his own time to coach the team for years, was nervous at the beginning of the season. The main reason was that the boys and girls teams were lacking the number of seniors they’ve had in the past. Overall, the number of new runners exceeded that of the returning members. Despite the odds, the team was motivated to succeed and began conditioning over the summer at Brevard Distance Runners Camp. This wasn’t the first summer Nichols offered the weeklong running camp experience, but this season it made all the difference.
“Running at Brevard over the summer helped me better prepare for the season,” junior Kalan Williams said. “Last year I didn’t have any summer training and had to start from scratch. This year, I was ready for anything after running the difficult courses at Brevard.”
The first meet of the season wowed many. The new, less experienced runners instantly showed their potential and the returning runners started off stronger than they ended the season before. One in particular was senior Tara Butler, who wasn’t thrilled with her performance last year.
“I hit my PR (personal record) last year in my first race at 23:48,” Butler said. “But I was mostly running in the 24s and 25s. This year I have been improving and my PR is currently 23:03.”
Junior Niko Quano, who began running last year after being convinced to join the team by both his mom and fellow cross-country runner Elizabeth Baltazar, had an astounding first race.
“My starting time last year was 39:59,” he said. “This year, it was 26:37.”
Though Brevard contributed to the team’s success, it wasn’t the only factor. Everyday after fourth period the students change and congregate under the red awning, ready to work for the next two hours. Nichols has a solid program that has been in place for five years now. Dynamic stretching has reduced the number of injuries and he has also included more aerobic conditioning.
“Our workouts are slightly more refined than last year’s,” Quano said. We are focusing a lot on speed improvements and drills. It is very efficient.”
Running alongside the students is math teacher and wrestling coach Scott Sodergren, who has taken on a new title of cross-country coach. He isn’t new to the sport of distance running; Sodergren ran 5 and 10k’s after college to train for wrestling. He helps Nichols carry out his proven system, becoming a positive influence on the team.
“I help train the athletes and often run with them,” Sodergren said. “I take care of some of the administrative details as well, such as collecting and tracking paperwork from the athletes and forwarding the district entry list.”
The top runners have been making headlines this season. For the first time in four years, the boys and girls cross-country team finished first overall at their meet on September 27 at Markham Park. Junior Shelby Turner even finished first overall in the girls’ race, the first CCHS girl to do so in five years. After that race, Butler, who finished third overall, was featured in The Miami Herald.
“It was very exciting for them to both win a meet at the same time,” Nichols said.
Veteran runners such as Nassor Whitehead, whose PR is approaching 16 minutes, have been leading the pack, but the newer, less experienced runners have been significant to this season’s accomplishments.
“We work the team hard and plan for success, but also place a lot of emphasis on character development,” Sodergren said. “The little moral victories and the improvements that some of the slower, less visible runners get are just as significant as the accomplishments of the top runners who are making the awards stands.”
The runners themselves are proud of their accomplishments. Some even referred to the season as, “record breaking.”
“This season has been tough work, but we are showing great results,” Quano said. “There were a few new runners on the team, and everyone has shown great improvements in the mere nine weeks we’ve been running together. My season in particular was a season of seeing what I could do. I had no idea I would be running below 26 minutes.”
