Runners dominate at Pine Haven
The Newcastle High School cross country team finished up their regular season Friday with a trip to Pine Haven where they competed in the Moorcroft Invitational. It was a banner day for both the men and the women, as 15 of the 19 runners (both men and women) put up personal best times, and Sam Cunningham and Aspen Bloom both won their
varsity races.
“The kids were fired up and confident, and they loved the course,” head coach Kathy Beehler said. “It was a beautiful course that was relatively flat, and they really want to go back to compete there again.”
Beehler was very pleased to see her team cut time nearly across the board, and she noted that although four runners didn’t get a personal record on the day, they all finished very close to their best times of
the season.
“We ran in the morning and I think that helps the kids run better,” Beehler said. “We dropped their mileage last week and I kept telling them that they would PR, because they were rested and trained and they are strong, fit and ready to go!”
Not only did Bloom win the girls’ race, she finished a full two minutes ahead of the second-place runner from Sheridan. Though she was pretty much running by herself, the senior ran a great race to establish a new PR for herself, beating her previous best time by 22 seconds.
“Aspen looked so good! That stride that I have been used to seeing from her, I saw,” Beehler said. “It was so awesome to see her back on her best form.”
Liliana Cunningham finished next in sixth place, also with a PR, and all of the rest of the ladies posted personal bests marks, with most cutting one or two minutes.
“The girls just all ran really well, which I’ve been waiting to see,” said Beehler. “The timing of that is great with conference (races) coming up.”
For the men’s team, Cunningham had his best race of the season when he crossed the finish line first in 16:55, which is a new PR for the junior and was 37 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher from Wright.
“It was exciting to see Sam break into the 16s,” Beehler said. “It was only his third race of the season and he PR’d by 33 seconds!”
The remaining runners who ran personal best times improved anywhere from 14 seconds to 1:04, so Beehler was very happy with how the team performed.
Caden Esposito was the third runner across the finish line for the Dogies, improving by 17 seconds, and after last week where he finished eighth, the senior was excited to be back up in the top three again. He admitted that he wasn’t sure what gave him the extra motivation to pour on the speed, but speculated that it was a mistake in the position of the spotter at the first mile point of the race.
“I think it was Julie (Morris) being in the wrong spot for the mile marker,” Esposito said, grinning. “She was about .2 miles off, so when I heard that my mile split was 5:09, and because I was feeling really good, I really started to push myself!”
This week the team heads to Rawlins for the 3A East Conference meet. It was scheduled to take place on Friday, however, due to forecasted inclement weather, the race has been moved up to Thursday to beat the potential snow on that side of the state.