{"id":147,"date":"2010-11-03T16:14:28","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T16:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=147"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:50","slug":"phs-cross-country-team-runs-into-a-good-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"PHS Cross Country Team Runs Into a Good Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maggie Morrow<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>

From left, junior Gaby Ramirez, and seniors Derrick Lee, Allasyn Slater, and Emily Walden are the 2010 team captains. Photo by: Maggie Morrow<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

For the PHS Cross Country team, the word \u201cfamily\u201d may better describe this group.\u00a0 Coming into the season strongly, the team members are more ready than ever to come out on top this year.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt is my final season with the team, so I am most excited for the new friends that I will make, the impact I leave on the people when I leave and making memories with some of my best friends and my second family,\u201d says senior Allasyn Slater.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m just excited to get to know everybody on the team and make friends,\u201d freshman Sidney Listenberger states.\u00a0 Like Slater, her teammates play a large role in how much she enjoys running.\u00a0 Two of the junior class runners, however, are more excited to dominate each race.\u00a0 \u201cWe have a really good team and hopefully we can make it to semi-state,\u201d says junior Diego Ibarra.\u00a0 Also a junior, Gaby Ramirez is ready to surprise everyone.\u00a0 \u201cI just want to show that we are way stronger this year,\u201d she states.
\nAlong with weekly team dinners, the team spends an extreme amount of time together.\u00a0 Though everyone is accustomed to the camp the runners attend each summer during two-a-day practices, there was yet another tradition added this year.\u00a0 Every runner participated in the first annual Run-a-Thon.\u00a0 It was a unique and fun way to condition, bond as a team and raise money.\u00a0\u00a0 Previous to the Run-a-Thon, every runner was to find two to six sponsors, asking each sponsor to donate any\u00a0 amount\u00a0 of\u00a0 money per mile that the team member was able to run within the twelve hours given.\u00a0 \u201cCoach split us up into teams of four or five people.\u00a0 We took the roles of first through however many runners we had in the group and ran in that order.\u00a0 For twelve hours, [six o\u2019clock p.m. to six o\u2019clock a.m.] each person would run one mile and after that mile, they would tag the next runner in their group and they would do the same,\u201d Slater explains.\u00a0 Depending on the sponsors, each runner earned a different amount of money to be spent on team shirts, uniforms, sweats and hats.
\nNot only do they realize how the closeness of their team impacts the season, but also how the direction and difficulty of the practices affect every race.\u00a0 Alternating every other day, practices go in a pattern from difficult to easy, then back to difficult.\u00a0 Senior Emily Walden, however, feels as though there are no easy practices.\u00a0 \u201cEveryday is hard, some just aren\u2019t as hard as others,\u201d she states.\u00a0 Throughout\u00a0 the summer, each\u00a0 practice focused on different aspects of running a race.\u00a0 Some would consist of\u00a0 sprints\u00a0 and\u00a0 speed work-outs, while others would require a distance run.
\nThrough the tiring practices and exhausting meets, one does not have to be a first place finisher to be a leader.\u00a0 \u201cI would have to say that every senior on both the boys team and the girls team are leaders to everyone,\u201d shares Slater.\u00a0 \u201cThey influence everyone and help anyone in need, no matter what their ranking.\u201d\u00a0 Seniors Allasyn Slater and Emily Walden, and junior Gaby Ramirez are the girls\u2019 team captains this season, with senior Derrick Lee as the guys\u2019 captain.
\nWhen it comes to making varsity, time is the only factor, and one\u2019s age and grade level are irrelevant.\u00a0 \u201cTop seven times for the girls and the top seven times for the guys make varsity,\u201d Ramirez states.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone under those seven are JV, but that could change after any race, just depending whether or not you keep your spot or if someone bumps you down,\u201d Slater further explains.\u00a0 It is clear that competition is never a question for the\u00a0 PHS\u00a0 cross country team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maggie Morrow For the PHS Cross Country team, the word \u201cfamily\u201d may better describe this group.\u00a0 Coming into the season strongly, the team members are more ready than ever to come out on top this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-october-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}