From the streets of Monroe to the fields of Williamsburg, PCM’s Cross Country team has stormed through the courses. Last Tuesday the Mustangs ran for their second time at the Williamsburg Invitational this season. With four girls out for injury and illness, the nerves were high before the race, but the runners pushed through and managed to run a great race at Williamsburg. The Williamsburg course is generally one of the easier courses the Cross Country team runs during the season. Many athletes have an opinion on which courses are the easiest. 

Two time state qualifier Paige Steenhoek said, “I think the course is very easy and it’s also a faster course so that definitely played into the outcome of the race.” 

Steenhoek led the Mustangs and crossed the finish line at 22:53 placing 22nd, “It went pretty well, I didn’t hit my goal of running a faster time but there were some factors that played into that but overall I think it was a pretty good race and there was a lot of great state competition there.”

 The Mustang runner hopes to medal top ten at the conference meet in the upcoming weeks and hopefully qualify for the state meet for the third time this fall. PCM’s girls varsity team finished in eight place with a score of 203 out of fifteen teams. The varsity boys team was led by PCM senior Kyle Sanders. Sanders finished with a time of 21:18 placing 55th and leading the boys to a tenth place finish with 305 points. The runners said that Tuesday’s heat also played a big role in the result of the race. 

Hanna Townley, a senior at PCM, said, “The course wasn’t too bad, there were a couple hills that I struggled to continue on but I think the heat affected my running a lot.” 

Varsity runner, junior Riley Devore, said, “I think the weather was very impactful on the outcome of the race.” Eric Karr, head coach of the PCM Cross Country team has a lot to say about the race at the Williamsburg invitational. 

“It obviously wasn’t the outcome we were looking for. Only five of the 12 runners, that we can actually compare the times of running on the same course a month ago, were faster. I really expected better results overall. We are obviously in better shape, and I thought I had the runners fresher than last time at Williamsburg. Carson Taylor was about 1:00 faster, Makayla True was about 2:00 faster, and Emma Hiebert was about 4:00 faster this time out. Those were some pretty impressive efforts,” Karr said.

 With the results of the race not meeting the times the team was hoping for, Coach Karr is implementing a few new ideas into the program to hopefully reach team goals throughout the rest of the 2021 cross country season.

 “Moving forward we will be recording every mile, pace, interval, etc. at every single practice because I have to get this figured out. The bottom line is we are better than we are showing, and I still believe in both teams” said Karr. 

With still a lot of time left in the season the Mustangs are continuing to work hard during each and every practice to see great results for the upcoming meets.