The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“There’s a wide range of fitness but that’s alright”
The bar was set high last year when the girl’s cross-country team won regionals and took second place at the state meet, with two Titans finishing in the top 10 and four in the top 20.
Unfortunately for new cross-country coach Connie Hayden, only one of the three runners from last year’s team is returning this year. Nevertheless, Hayden does have the top runner returning from last year in junior Erin Kelly, as well as junior Hannah Smith and a total of 13 runners this year.
While Hayden would like to see more boys try out (she has only three), she is excited about the morale through the pre-season workouts.
“Everybody was go,” says Hayden—although some runners came into the season a little more prepared than others.
“There’s a wide range of fitness but that’s alright,” says Hayden.
In an effort to get the runners prepared for the upcoming season, Hayden has them building a base level of fitness with runs on local trails including the Green Lake trail.
“We’re just trying to get some mileage under our belt,” says Hayden.
The runners got their first test with a day of time trials at the close of the preseason, giving Hayden an idea of where everyone stands as they head into the regular season and future workouts.
“It provides important pacing information for interval workouts that are run over specific distances,” says Hayden. “It’s a fun starting point.”
Hayden takes her varsity runners to the first meet of the season in Delta on Saturday, September 5. She looks forward to using the first meet as another benchmark for her runners the rest of the year.
“It will be fun to see who steps up this weekend and puts their base training to use,” says Hayden. “The course is lower in elevation and pretty flat, so it’s a really good indicator for what we have to work on the rest of the season.”
