Although Kirsten Taylor has been elevated from assistant to the head coach position for Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Cross Country, much else will remain the same this season.
“We graduated two seniors last year and we return just about everybody, except for Gavin (Faulkner), who is not going out this year,” explained Taylor. “And we gained one freshman, Clara Funk. Most of our kids, they have experience at the varsity level. They know what it’s like to compete in meets.”
The HMS runners will also know what those meets look like. That’s because, with a couple of exceptions, they ran on the courses last season. “Our schedule is very similar,” noted the coach. “We’ve got one new meet this year at South O’Brien. They’re aware of the courses. If anything, they helped me out a little bit, too.”
The Okoboji meet is on the docket again to open the season, but it will be run on Arnolds Park’s Emerald Hills golf course which is new to the Hawk harriers. Taylor admits that with new courses comes a level of anxiousness that can be distracting to the runners, but she is looking on the bright side. “That will be fun for them to maybe get them more excited, just that the first meet of the season is at a new location,” offered the coach.
As for those returning runners, they include seniors Bryce Dodge and Juliana Pasillas, juniors Lexi Croatt and George Vargas, sophomores Aiden Bush, Damian Dodge Kamryn Ebel, Blaine Finster, Ryan Grotluschen and Gracie Knobloch. Add to that mix the aforementioned Clara Funk. “Clara is our only freshman out,” said Taylor. “I think cross country’s new to her. At least she wasn’t out for junior high last year. She’s been fitting in very well and she really enjoys it.”
When asked if she plans to run everybody at the varsity level, the coach replied, “With our numbers – we’ve six boys, five girls – that’s what’s going to have to happen.” Five runners are necessary to compete as a team for both girls and boys.
Especially looking forward to the competition are a pair of athletes who missed time. “Lexi was injured all of last season and so we’re excited to have a season with her,” said Taylor. “Juliana was injured just about all of this past track season and she just came back from Basic Training all summer. She was in South Carolina. So, she’s ready to go. She’s really excited for her senior year.”
The head coach knows the injury bug can always bite and is taking precautions to ward it off. “We’re hoping to stay healthy,” said Taylor. “My background in the sport of running, it’s about preventing injury. Once you’re injured, it’s too late. So we do some stuff in the weight room with bands, just strengthening those little muscles that get overlooked a lot of the time. In the sport of cross country you’re continually pounding your legs so not everyone’s going to feel 100 percent all the time. That’s the nature of the beast.” She noted that trying to incorporate putting in mileage and simulating race day by running on grass is a challenge in this area, but they’ve been making it work.
Making it work as it pertains to the transition from assistant coach to head coach has not been difficult, according to Taylor. “I kind of slid into the role very well,” she admitted. “I have relationships with them last year, coaching junior high, being the girls head track coach and subbing around the district. So I already have some of those relationships built which is very important.” Taylor noted that she has previous head cross country coaching experience in Colorado. “So, it’s not new to me, but I guess new here at HMS,” said the coach.
Taylor explained that some of the routes utilized by previous coach Kyle Borchers as well as his emphasis on getting mileage in have been retained. “Coach Borchers was great about sharing some of those with me,” she said. However, the new coach has put her own stamp on the program. Said Taylor, “We’re doing some different stuff and the kids have told me, ‘No, we’ve never done anything like this,’ which is good just to shock their bodies a little bit. We’ve been doing some repeats and some fast stuff. I would say, maybe, some more speed. We had a speed endurance workout today they’d never done before. Just incorporating some fast stuff along with the mileage that’s necessary.” She added that running the same routes every week can get stagnant so they are finding what can be done to keep kids motivated and keep them pushing themselves to their level of excellence. The coach records all the runners sets and their times and gives them target times. She notes that the team members are anxious to find out about those times in search of lowering them.
Just as difficult as finding grassy areas on which to run, has been finding hills to train the runners. “I’ve scouted out the hill that’s kind of by the golf course as a hill workout because it’s a challenge, finding hills around here,” the coach admitted. “Competing as a track athlete and seeing my coaches, hill workouts were essential, for sprinters and even for our cross country athletes at the college level and we got to incorporate them a lot in Colorado, obviously, but here is more of a challenge. Today we did some bleacher sets stuff to kind of simulate that. We’ll do some resistance pulls.”
Weight training has been a part of the regimen. “We’ve been lifting since we’ve started here a couple weeks ago,” said the coach. “We’ve been in the weight room twice a week. Even as cross country kids you still need to strengthen those muscles, strengthen the ankles to prevent injury, our hips so we’re not getting knee problems. Lifting weights is essential.”
Taylor touched on the level of competition at the meets. “We’re in a good place with the similar size schools, and obviously there’s going to be some with a lot bigger teams,” she said. “I’m grateful that we have the 11 kids out that we do – that want to be here.”
The coach wrapped things up by saying, “My big thing for our kids this year – again we are returning to most of the same places – are we scoring less points? (The fewer points scored, the better in cross country.) We’re returning about everybody. Are we scoring less points? How have we improved? Where are our times this year compared to last year? Are we maybe placing a little higher? With those little baby steps maybe a mentality to finish 10 places ahead of where we did last year and maybe shave some time off. That’s our big thing and just the maturity. I think we’ve got a good group that are motivated and determined to be their best selves.”