Provincials is the goal

Times Reporter   

 

With roughly a dozen combined juniors and seniors on Holy Cross Collegiate’s (HCC) cross-country team, the school has high expectations for the season.

“The last two years, we’ve had kids qualify for provincials, which we’ve never done before in our 10 years; so our program has improved that much,” said Head Coach Tony Irving. “They practice every day. It’s one of those sports where you have to be in such great condition yet you’re only going to be able to compete against other people two or three times.”

Those two or three times include invitational meets in places such as Brooks and Strathcona Tweedsmuir, and zones in Canmore come October.

Grades 10-12 run roughly 4.7 km, and Grades 7-9 run around 2 km during practices.

“Some of them even add to that because the senior races are 6 km,” Irving said. “What they do is, they run the route around the area in town that we do, and then they’ll come back around to Kinsmen Park, and do two or three laps around the park.”

The juniors run anywhere from 1.5 km to 3.5, depending on their age. Strathmore is at a slight disadvantage against other schools, as our town is fairly flat.

“If the kids that run 2.5-3.5 km always run 4.7, it should give them equal footing with the kids that run hills all the time,” Irving said.

Provincials for cross-country are, unfortunately, only available to the high school students, but the older junior students still have difficult training.

“Now what the goal is, with some of the really, really good Grade 9 runners, is to have them finish and be prepared to be a provincial athlete next year,” Irving said. “A lot of them are cross-country runners and hockey players, cross-country runners and basketball players, and it works out fine because they’re still getting good conditioning on the days when they’re not here.”

All cross-country students can be used for long distance running when track and field begins in the summer as well.