It’s Been a Memorable Four Years

The cross country season was quite a success for the level at which the Chargers were competing.  The boys finished as a team in 5^th place at Regionals.  They were led by Max Gilbert (‘09) in 25^th place, Jimmy Spencer (‘11) in 26^th place, Dan Kottkamp (‘10) in 29^th place, John Cisneros (‘10) in 35^th place, Manny Sauceda (‘11) in 36^th place, Alex Duncan (‘12) in 44^th place, and Garrett McCarthy (‘09) in 47^th place.  They qualified for Sectionals at Belvidere and performed exceptionally well. They were led again, by Max Gilbert, Jimmy Spencer, Dan Kottkamp, John Cisneros, Manny Sauceda, Adam Miller, and Garrett McCarthy.

The Lady Chargers gave it their all at Regionals as well; unfortunately they did not qualify for Sectionals.  Bailey Shemenski (‘12) led the way finishing in 30^th place, with Jacquelyn Nagel (‘11) a second behind in 31^st.  Amanda Contreras (‘12) finished in 38^th with Alexis Anthony (‘11) and Natalie Perry (‘10) close behind.  Alyssa Shaff (‘09) came through in 58^th place with Nicole Bohr soon following.  The Lady Chargers finished in 7^th place as a team.

Quite a few members of the cross country team, both boys and girls, will be missed this next year.  It is a bitter sweet ending for the six seniors who just finished running their last season.  Max Gilbert, recipient of the MVP award, commented on the memories made. “I loved the subtle competition between the boys’ and girls’ team, Coach falling off his bike, Jimmy covered in mud, and berry wars.” Garrett agrees, “I will miss joking around with the guys in the back of the woods and messing with Jimmy.”  The two captains agreed that they did take something from this sport. Max said, “Definitely learned some leadership skills and made friendships that will last forever.” Garrett contributed, “Getting over the self-doubt in the middle of a 5K has transferred over into my everyday life.”

On the Ladies’ side, Meghan Kelly, Kara McNamara, Alyssa Shaff, and Sonya Steder will all be leaving.  All the girls agreed, “We’ll miss the base runs, especially to the park, when we had our talks.”  Sonya commented, “One thing I really enjoyed about cross country was all the close friendships that I have made with everyone,” a statement Kara echoed.  Captain Alyssa Shaff also agreed and added, “After four years this sport has really taught the true meaning of self-discipline, teamwork, and pain.”  Meghan, who received the Most Spirited award, says that she will really miss all the good memories, especially at state her freshman and sophomore year.

These six seniors have stuck with it to the end.  They all agree that after four years of hard training every day and knowing that giving up is not an option, despite all the pain and minor injuries, they still ran until they couldn’t anymore. The majority of these seniors plan to continue running cross country at college, but they will no longer be Chargers.