The last Cross country season of my high school year has been flying by like crazy. I have been working towards this season for a long time and I’m glad it’s here. Back in late August, we had our first meet in New Athens, I remember it was 92 degrees and sunny, they had to shorten the course by a mile so it was safer. I had run so hard that day I remember my heart rate hit its max. I ended up losing by half a second on a last-second kick by a guy from Wesclin. This was not how I wanted my season to start. This really motivated me, it drove me to become better. That next weekend we had a meet in Mascoutah, this is where I could prove myself. I ended up beating the guy that had previously taken me down. This was a big deal, to get my confidence level back up. Now it was time to roll. I had three big meets on the next three Saturdays. These were so big that top 20 was considered an incredible thing. I ended up placing 22nd at the Granite City Invite and 20th at the Peoria Invitational. These meets both had significant time drops from my previous meets. This was a huge step in going towards accomplishing my goal at the end of the season. We have had all these local meets during the week that I have enjoyed so much, and although they weren’t the most competitive, they were a good chance to get 1st place and add a win to my resume. My first win of the season was at Sparta, it was a close race in which I only won by 8 seconds. This was a great boost for me. I then went on to win 4 more meets, the 4th meet being the last regular meet of the season. This meet took place in East Alton Wood River which was one of the fastest courses around and a good opportunity to run a fast time to put into Athletic.net (a website for runners to get ranked and to see all the race results). I came into this meet knowing it would be my last time running there as a high schooler so I had to make it count. Mentally I was ready to go and couldn’t wait for the race to start. I ended up running the fastest 3-mile time personally and in RBHS history with a 15:47. This was only the start for me, as my expectations became bigger. I wanted something better than this. I wanted to break 15 at state. I wanted to accomplish my goal that no one thought I could do. The conference at New Athens was a good start to this goal as I became a Conference champion, which is one of my greatest achievements ever. This Saturday we will be going to Carterville for Regionals. I’m in search of a Regional Championship and the team qualifying for sectionals. This is the postseason I have been training my entire life for. I can’t wait to see what the future holds, God-willing that we still have a postseason. I’m ready for the challenge!