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State Recap

October 14, 2018

Hello HXC Community,

Entering our last week of the season, it was great to see so many athletes whose season was officially over still coming to practice. It’s this type of dedication and work ethic that has served our program so well over the years and will continue to do so in the future! As they’ve done for over three months now, Ayden, Dominic, Olivia, and Tori were focused and getting good workouts in. They each had goals in mind, and I had no doubt as we departed for Normal on Friday that were going to do great! Special thanks to Devyn, Kenzy, and Isabella for helping pace out our qualifers in practice last week. They joined us for the trip down state and were the ultimate teammates! Always we, never me.

Race Day:

Waking up on Saturday, we went down to breakfast and then had a quick team meeting in the lobby. The message was to not only run for themselves, but to run for all their teammates who they had worked so hard with this season and who weren’t going to have the opportunity to race today. It’s our teammates who make us better, and these four were taking the whole HXC Community with them as they prepared for their last race! We got to Maxwell Park and set up camp as the girls prepared to get Tori and Liv warmed up. As the girls headed for the starting line, the whole season had come down to this. The gun sounded, and they were off.

Olivia Kunio, 3rd Place (11:35) All State- Olivia is a frontrunner by nature and runs with such aggression. She has a competitive streak that is one of the fiercest I’ve ever seen! As the gun went off… she went off and was going to be attacking for two miles! She settled in with the best runners in the state and was 3rd coming through mile one. Our goal was to keep her close to the leaders until the last 400 and let her kick take her home. As she rounded the final straightaway, she was giving it everything she had. Olivia ultimately finished in third place! Last year Olivia finished 10th, and she improved on that with her third place finish and nine second PR at Maxwell! I think we all know what the goal will be next year!!

Tori Lopez 44th Place (12:16) Tori is about as consistent a runner as we have. She knows how to race her race and doesn’t get caught up in what others are doing. Tori settled into her pace and was with a very big chase pack behind the lead runners. The advantage Tori has is that she knew it was her last race as an HXC runner, and you never bet against an 8th grader in their last race! Tori finished with the same heart and determination that she has shown for three years! She placed 44th for her second consecutive top 50 finish! Tori is moving on to the high school team that is starting to get loaded with lots of former HXC runners! I have no doubt we’ll be reading about Tori and some ELITE West Aurora Teams for years to come.

Ayden & Dom 59th and 65th Place (11:19 and 11:25) The reason I’m putting these two together is because if you’ve been around our team since July then you know Dom, Ayden, and Devyn run together. Like shoulder to shoulder together. Dom and Ayden are both in just their first year of XC so to make it to the state meet was a victory in itself. We felt like we were playing with house money and told them just to go out and have fun and run their race! As they crossed mile one (shoulder to shoulder), they both looked fresh and confident! One thing we’ve stressed is that with a half mile to go you need to worry about yourself, and if you feel good, then you need to let it go. Ayden started to pull slightly ahead, which pushed Dom even harder. Coming down the homestretch, they were both giving it their all and pushing for every second they could get. Ayden closed out in 11:19, and Dom right behind in 11:25. With 47 eighth graders finishing ahead of them, these two along with Devyn should definitely be in conversation for All State next season!

As the boys race ended, so officially did our 2018 season. The rest of the afternoon was spent just enjoying time with teammates and reminiscing on what was a great season! It’s always sad for a season to end because we know it’s the last time our 8th graders will be with us, and this year was no different. Our 8th graders have been part of three great teams and have help continue our tradition at Herget. They will all be missed, but all know that once you’re part of HXC that you’re always part of HXC, and we welcome you back at any time!

Hopefully our 6th and 7th graders have learned a lot from our departing 8th graders and are determined and hungrier than ever for next season! We highly recommend track for all our athletes in the spring and our Endurance Camp in the summer. Also, if your child is interested in continuing their offseason training this fall and into the winter, there are many good run clubs in the area. One we recommend is the Batavia Accelerators. It’s a come and go as you want club, so you can literally come once a month or five days a week. The best part is, it’s absolutely FREE. The link for their website is http://acceleratorsrunning.com/

Thanks to the friends, families, and athletes for a great 2018! I’ll leave you with my favorite XC quote and hope to see you all next season! “If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.” #runhxc #beelite