As the cross country season came to a close on Nov. 12., the team competed for the first time in a regional race in Terra Haute, Ind.

Seniors Blake Selm, Cerow Aligab, Matyas Csiki-Fejer, Andrew Lofgren and Kyle Andersen led the herd.

“I thought we were going to be state champ contenders from the beginning,” Aligab said. “When we started getting everyone back together for all the races, we started doing well.”

After winning the first official race of the season, the Parkway Quad, the team headed off to Memphis, Tn. a few weeks later on Sept. second. They went on to win first place.

“[Memphis] was a huge race, a bunch of teams in the midwest; it was a long race, and I felt that we could take the dub even with all the talent that was there. I was really proud of the way we worked together to win.” Aligab said.

After a series of consecutive victories throughout the season, heading into the state meet, the team dealt with nerves in the midst of their high expectations. However, a surprise visit from a retired state-winning coach, Dale Shepard, helped the team relax.

“Coach Shepard’s talk really showed how mental toughness is a vital part to succeeding in tough races,” Selm said.

At state, the team finished in third place with Selm, Lofgren and Aligab making All-State appearances. The third place finish was the first podium appearance since 2009.

“We didn’t lose by much. Coach John wanted everybody to run their best and he said we’ll take what we can get. We ended up getting our first podium appearance since 2009. It was a good finish,” Aligab said.

Looking ahead to regionals, Csiki-Fejer knew that only the best of the best would make it, so they prepared by practicing on their own.

“It’s all the best teams from the midwest. For state, you basically qualify on how you do compared to other people, but for regionals you qualify based on your team’s average time. All the teams that were there had to be really good,” Csiki-Fejer said.

Going into regionals the program felt the pressure, but they were confident in their abilities as well. Unlike all other races, coaches were not allowed to attend the meet and be involved in practices.  

“With them being on their own, I was just hoping the boys took it seriously and made sure to prepare with a good week of practice. I think they did a nice job of making sure they were ready and they had a pretty good performance, so I think they all thought it was a good experience,” John said.

In the final race of the season, the program knew what they were going into. Their main goal was to run as hard as possible, and then live with the results.

“At state there was more pressure on us because we seriously believed we could win, but when we went to regionals, we knew we weren’t going to beat Illinois’ number one team,” Selm said. “We even ended up doing better than we thought and finishing in eighth place.”