Devil runners finish well despite hills
By Sherlyn Garcia,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
While most students at DHS were rolling out of their beds at 9 in the morning, the Blue Devil runners were preparing to run 2.1 miles on a difficult course.
The Davis High cross country team traveled to Folsom High School for the Willow Hill Five-Way meet on Sept. 8. The women competed against McClatchy, Inderkum and Rio Americano, while the men raced against Jesuit as well as these three schools.
There was one women’s race and one men’s race; the freshman, JV and varsity teams all ran together. Overall, more than 100 runners competed. The women’s varsity team came out in first place and the men’s varsity team finished second.
As the name suggests, there are many hills in the Willow Hill area. This obstacle makes it that much harder to run at the meet, so many of the runners train running uphill.
Even though the team practices for such hurdles, the hills in Davis simply cannot compete with the ones in Willow Hill. While Davis may have some steep overpasses, Willow Hill’s rigorous course demands a steady pace so that one can run up the numerous amounts of steep hills on the course.
For senior Haley Wienker, the race was a bit difficult. “Adrenaline makes it easier in the beginning, but nothing else really made it easy. The hills made it difficult,” Wienker said.
Many others competed and got impressive times at the meet, but in cross country, it really can come down to one second. Senior Sophia Lodigiani, who finished second for Davis, beat sophomore Ana Fenton, who finished third for Davis, by only two seconds.
For senior Isabelle Farrand, preparing for the meet was just like any other meet. She says that drinking a lot of water to hydrate, going to the pasta feed the night before to load up on carbs and getting a good night’s rest are important.
Although it felt like an ordinary race, Farrand looks back on her performance for opportunities to improve. “I should have put more effort into the race so that I could have done better,” Farrand said.
