Earlier this month, four of the top runners from this year’s cross country team made their way to the Wisconsin Rapids to run in the state meet, and compete with some of the most elite runners in the state of Wisconsin. Sophomore Addie Patnaude with a time of 20:54, Junior Nolan Wozniak who ran a 17:56 and Sophomore Sebastian Langenfeld with 17:45, and freshman Trinity Christenson were unfortunately unable to finish the race.
“I think overall state was successful this year, Sebastian was 36 seconds faster than last year and Nolan was 23 seconds faster on the same course,” Coach Corey Binnebose shared, “Addie was 1:35 faster than last year. With improvements like that, that is all a coach can ask, so I was very happy.”
There’s much to do when preparing to run at state, here’s how some of the runners and coaches made sure they were ready. “I prepared by eating healthy and staying very hydrated, and being consistent with my training to get ready for state.” Patneaude said.
“I found out the people I was going up against and their times, and practiced hard to beat their best records, so that I could be faster than them for the race.” Wozniak said.
The coach needs to prepare the team for this important meet as well, “ To prepare to go to state we start cutting down the miles the week of Sectionals, we want to make sure they qualify for State. The workouts are very similar to workouts other weeks, but we just do less reps or shorten the distances a little.” said Binnebose.
The meet was a very memorable time for the runners, “We had a team dinner and stayed at a place the night before and just got to hang out, we also got to decorate the van! Another one of my favorite parts from the trip was when the rest of the girls on the team came to surprise me and watch me at the meet!” Patnaude shares.
“I wanted to go and support my friends at the important meet, and it’s like watching your favorite sports team, you get super invested in all the runners,” Junior Maggie Rice, friend of the runners and also cross country member, said, “ My favorite memory is having to sprint place to place with Binne to catch them at different point in the race and cheer them, there was lots of anticipation and it was very exciting!”
Overall, it was a successful and exciting time for the runners at Greendale!
