This fall, Sandburg’s girl’s cross country team returned stronger than ever, taking over this year’s season with success and confidence. After months of training, both the varsity and the freshmen/sophomore group have been prepared to race, all thanks to the collective improvement and wins that the team has seen in these past few months.
“Competitively, it’s been going really well,” says Coach Pena, who has been coaching the team for the past ten years. “Our varsity group has improved tremendously. Most of them are juniors and seniors that, since their freshman and sophomore years, have just really improved a ton through a lot of hard work and commitment. They’re getting the rewards for it now with their times, with their running, and how we’re competing as a team.”
At numerous invites in the season so far, the team has performed successfully as a whole, often finishing in the top three overall out of 15 or 20 teams, with fresh/soph runners placing in the top three in races, something that Coach Pena credits to the commitment that the team has put into their training.
The training begins with the summer camp in June, in which runners meet at the Swallow Cliff trails every morning, putting in the work to build their mileage and aerobic capacity. “There’s no question that our most improved athletes are the ones who have largely been with us throughout the summer,” says Coach Pena. “There’s definitely been a direct link [between] what we’ve been doing in the summer [and] what we’re now able to do during the season.”
However, despite pre-season training in the summer program, there was still uncertainty concerning the skillset of this year’s incoming freshmen runners. “I didn’t know much about a lot of the freshmen coming in. We run our summer camp. Even this summer, we didn’t have a ton of freshmen at the actual camp, and just in the last couple of years, this particular class hadn’t been sending too many people to our summer camps,” shares Coach Pena.
“I really didn’t know what to expect of the freshman class. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised and happy with them. We have some that are right now very competitive and close to running with varsity girls. And then even the new ones who are sort of new to running or didn’t do a whole lot of running in junior high—they’ve improved tremendously.”
For freshman Clare Snyder, this improvement is especially noticeable, with current racing times typical of varsity runners at just the fresh/soph level. She shares that she “didn’t run all of middle school, only eighth grade,” and she states that “the biggest difference [she is] noticing is the conditioning. High school is definitely more intense!”
This conditioning is a key aspect of cross country, and although the workouts and distances are challenging, they are vital to gaining success this season. Sophomore Kamile Juzenas says, “Apart from getting a faster time, a goal that I have for this season is to do more. For example, I did the XC summer camp and I’ve been doing my best to attend the optional parts of practices.” Juzenas is already displaying commendable growth as a runner after only two years with the program, dropping just over two minutes from her time in this season alone thanks to the commitment that she has been putting in since the summer.
This commitment is one of the most challenging aspects to cross country, with Coach Pena explaining that “It can be hard. Some early mornings, some long practices, starting in the summer. So just kind of being patient, doing all that work…it’s not a sport that you get instant gratification with. There’s certainly a delayed gratification to running.”
Junior Katie Bordelon is part of the team’s top 14 runners, and to be that skilled in the sport, there is a greater need to stay committed to keeping up with running and training. “I’ve managed to stay consistent with running because I’m always looking forward to accomplishing another PR,” says Bordelon. “Whether it’s training for track or XC, I want to stay consistent because it’s the roadmap to success, especially in running. Whenever the weather is bad or my motivation is low, I visualize my future self crossing the finish line with a PR on the clock, and I immediately start running.”
The weather is just one roadblock that the runners face. For Bordelon, it is the most difficult to overcome this season. “It’s been really hot this year, more than in my previous years, and sometimes when it’s too hot, I have trouble focusing on the course, which can take the enjoyable part out of meets,” says Bordelon. “However, I have overcome this by preparing more, such as drinking more water, so I can focus less on how I feel during the race and more on the experience and the course of the meet, so I can enjoy it more.”
Keeping the meets enjoyable is crucial to feeling stronger and faster while racing, and this becomes especially true on early Saturday meets, where motivation tends to run lower simply due to early morning sleepiness. For this season’s Peoria Notre Dame Richard Spring Invitational, the wakeup call was around 4:30AM.
“My favorite meet, and the one I look forward to the most is our meet in Peoria,” says Juzenas. “It’s our biggest meet and this year there were 76 teams! We have to wake up really early but once we get on the bus, we get bagels. We drive about two and a half hours in a coach bus and then after our races we have a picnic. Considering that Peoria has a pretty great course, there are tons of other runners around us to motivate us, and we get a picnic after, I’d say that Peoria is definitely our best meet!”
This Peoria meet is very important to the team, not only for the bagels and the course, but also to scope out the competition prior to state. “The most competitive race is, for sure, when we go to Peoria, when we do the Richard Spring invite, there’s 70 teams there,” says Coach Pena. “Most of the top teams in Illinois are there, multiple top teams from surrounding states come to that meet as well. That’s a really good measuring stick to kind of see where we stack up against the best teams in Illinois because for the most part, outside of a handful, they’re all there to race. So it’s probably, if not as competitive, it may be even a little bit more competitive than the state meet with all the different teams coming from other states as well.”
Leading up to state, another crucial course for the team are the meets at Lockport, with a preseason race to kickoff the season and the championships near the end. For runners new to the team, this first race is uncharted territory, and a way to figure out how to race at the high school level. “The hardest race was the first race we had, since I wasn’t sure what to expect,” says Snyder.
For Juzenas, the Lockport meets are more of a way to look back on her growth across the season, saying that “Some of the most important meets to me are the first and last meets, which are on the same course. I love comparing where I started and how much I was able to improve over the course of the season.”
As the end of this season draws closer, there is a heightened sense of determination among the team to make it to the State competition this year, and both the coaches and runners feel confident that they can do this. Last year, even though they came close to making it to that state level, the varsity group was not as ready as in years prior, as they had just lost a senior group of runners that had placed 10th at state the year before.
“Most of the girls last year were inexperienced in terms of just competing at the varsity level, so I knew last year was going to be kind of a developmental year,” says Coach Pena. “So now going into this year, I know that’s one of our main goals for them, is that now it’s not a developmental year, now it’s a year for them to become kind of the face of the Sandburg cross country program and turn themselves into the group that people are looking up to, that people are seeing as one of the better teams in the state. So, that’s certainly their goal, I think, is to, when we get to the sectional this year, not be kind of crossing our fingers that we can kind of sneak in, but if we run to our potential, we’re gonna make it.”
“The biggest challenge for our varsity team last year was the sectional meet. Our team was only a couple of places away from qualifying for state and this year the motivation is higher than ever,” adds Juzenas. “All of us have been working extremely hard, putting in the extra miles so that, hopefully, our team can qualify for state this year.”
The girls’ attitudes only add to the successful atmosphere of this season, with a balance of discipline and positivity to create wins at both meets and practice. “As a top 14 runner, I do find that the training has made me more disciplined and has shown me how to become more focused toward a goal, which has helped me in running and in school,” says Bordelon. “It has also shown me that hard work can bring me much farther than I’ve ever imagined if I’m consistent with it.”
“I love perfecting the activities I try, so attempting to reach all of my goals has been tough. I’ve still managed to hit most of them!” says Snyder. “We motivate each other in several ways. Some even as simple as saying good job when we pass each other on a run! This has been my favorite group of people I’ve done a sport with. Everyone is so kind and thoughtful and I am so grateful to have such incredible teammates and coaches!”
“The XC team community is wonderful!” adds Juzenas. “Everyone is very welcoming and encouraging to the new members. We also have some of the best cheerers, I would say. During a race, you will definitely hear tons of girls cheering you on and congratulating you once you finish.”
More recently, Coach Pena was awarded Sandburg’s September Coach of the Month, and although it is something he does not aim for as a coach, it was a much appreciated recognition for the team that he has successfully led over the years. “I enjoy running, being outside, being fit. I love the relationships that we have with the girls on the team. Those are all the reasons you do it,” shares Coach Pena. “So you don’t necessarily do it for recognition, but when it does come your way like it did, it is kind of nice because we do spend a lot of time with them. We do spend a lot of time away from our families, a lot of late nights, long weekends. So it was nice, it was appreciated.”
With this motivating team spirit and a stronger intensity in the girls’ races, Coach Pena says that “[it] has been great, just seeing so many girls working hard, getting better, competing, and developing great relationships with others on the team,” and it is through this that the team is confident that they will reach their goals this season.