The Normal West Boys and Girls Cross Country teams both ran in the Regional meet this past weekend in Alton, Illinois. The girls won 2nd place overall with Sophomores Julie Bach and Renee Warren finishing in 1st and 2nd place. 

The boys got 4th place overall. 

Both teams qualified for the Sectional meet in Grand City, IL on Saturday, October 28. 

The top from both teams qualify to run in the Sectional meet. The girls team also has three alternate runners, and the boys have 4 alternates. 

“I’m just really excited for sectionals getting to rep West’s name and all because it’s an individual sport, but you kind of run in for your team as well,” Sophomore Julie Bach noted about her excitement for the meet.

In an interview with Gwen Rodts, the first alternate runner on the girls team, we discussed the upcoming Sectionals meet. When asked what she would like people to know about the Cross Country team, Rodts stated, “What running is, it’s a physical sport, but it’s not like basketball or volleyball or anything where you get breaks. They get half times and quarters, but running is continuous. It’s really mental. So when we do sectionals we need to bring all of the positive energy with us because we can’t just stop in the middle, we have to keep going.”

Rodts also described what the team typically does the night before big meets to prepare and get themselves ready for the competition the next day. The team will leave Friday night and head down to Granite City. Once they get down there, they will assess the field they will be competing on and get a good night’s rest. 

Both Warren and Bach usually bring speakers on the bus to help keep the team’s spirits lifted.

“I’m really excited because the course is supposed to be really nice. So hopefully, we’ll get some PRs but we’re also going to be staying overnight in a hotel,” Warren stated.

“West has been doing really good this year. We have a lot of good freshmen, a lot of sophomores that are really good, we have a lot of juniors- our whole team is just really good,” Rodts stated. 

We asked stand out runner Ethan Snyder how he felt about running with his team at sectionals, to which he said: 

“The reason we are here at sectionals this week is because of a team effort. If even one of the guys wasn’t there at regionals, we wouldn’t have been blessed with this opportunity to race again at sectionals. These guys are my family, and if we’re going to make it to state, we’re going together.”

Earlier this semester, The Paw Print staff sat down with standout runners Julie Bach and Ethan Snyder. Read that interview at westpawprint.com.