Raising from the bottom to the top, the Wildcats take victory! On Wednesday, October 16th at Yankee Springs in Gun Lake, the Boy’s Cross Country team won the OK Gold conference. It was their first time competing in this new conference, but they did not let that stop them. Their team consisted of 21 runners and two coaches, John Wojciakowski and Drew Wenger.
The OK gold conference consisted of South Christian, Union, Wayland, West Ottawa, Thornapple Kellog, Wyoming and Northview. Last year, they were in the OK White conference with Byron Center, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, GR Christian, Greenville, Lowell and Northview. In this conference, they placed seven out of eight teams versus being first in their new conference.
The boys had a vigorous workout and practice schedule to train for this season in a new conference. They committed to summer practices and ran five to six and even more miles than that at the beginning of the season. Towards the end of the season, they shifted to more fast-paced practices focused on speed more than distance.
Junior Rhys Holmes took eighth place in the first conference meet and sixth in the last two for boys overall. Holmes has been running since he was in seventh grade at Chandler Woods and continued his journey at Northview. Holmes enjoys running and doing it with his team.
“Everyone was able to be themselves and was super close together because everyone liked running..that’s just something we all had in common,” Holmes said.
Holmes already has a plan for how he is going to get ahead next season.
“I ran throughout the whole summer, which is good for me for conditioning, but I think I’m going to join a club this winter so I can get a head start on track season,” Holmes said.
Running involves more than people think. It’s often overlooked as a sport, but it requires extensive hard work and effort from the athlete.
John Wojciakowski, a science teacher at the high school, is the head cross-country coach for the boys. He has been coaching since 2002, first as a track coach and then helping Chemistry teacher James Haveman with cross country in the fall.
The team had an excellent season finishing off strong and proving they are capable of doing imaginable things.
Wojciakowski is proud of the boys for the endurance they showed during the season and at conference. They worked persistently and made major improvements.
“I feel as if the boys do a great job pushing each other in practice. I know Wenger [Another coach of the cross-country team]also did a great job pushing the runners in our workouts and making them more familiar with pacing,” Wojciakowski said.
As challenging as being in a team sport is, being in an individual one is even harder, many aspects go into it. Athletes are forced to push themselves not only physically but also mentally.
“You control your own pace and there will be times when you feel uncomfortable and experience some pain, you also know in the back of your mind how far you have till the finish line and that often results in runners letting off the gas a bit through the middle of the race,” Wojciakowski said.
Most runners give up at that point but a successful runner pushes through.
“You need to race on that fine line of your body running anaerobically and building up too much lactic acid. We have all probably felt that burn when you push those limits. You also need to race the competitors from the other teams,” Wojciakowski said.
English teacher Drew Wenger has been coaching cross country for two years but this is his first year at Northview. Though this was only his first season on the coaching staff, he is already noticing the talents within the athletes.
“We have many runners that I think are just discovering what it is they’re able to do, and it’s probably more than they would’ve ever imagined,” Wenger said.
The boys had an amazing season, pushing each other so they each performed their best. They had great work and dedication throughout the season and deserve all the recognition they can get for winning their first conference title since 1970.
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