On September 17th, the Cross Country guys made a comeback after losing their top 5 last year and still managing to get first at South Whidbey. Currently the varsity boys team consists of sophomores and seniors. That was not the last of their streak, the Arlington High School boys team has a 2 win streak with a total of 3 wins so far for their four meets. 

Last year the top 5 graduated so when asked about how losing their top 5 impacted their running Beau Pearson (25) said “I’ve been taking running a lot more seriously since I have to fill their spot.” Pearson is currently the fifth runner on the team and he talked about how he is training hard to run faster. Aiden and Brandon were both nationally ranked runners and losing them has made an impact on the team. 

Kellen Langford (23) said “It was sad at first and still is but it was a new opportunity to try new things and trust in the training, Murray always says that we don’t restart we reload so there will always be the next top 5 guys.” Langford is currently the top runner and he talked about how he misses them though is also excited for the new challenges. 

The varsity guys train 7 days a week and 1 of those days is their race. Blake Wayman is the third guy for the cross country team and he wants to do his best even at his worst.  When asked about how they train. Wayman (23) said “ you train hard every  day so you do the little things and hope that it works. You have to prepare your mindset for race day and go all in to be happy with your race.” 

Gavin Rinehardt is currently the sixth runner and trains during and outside of practice. Everyone explained how they need to drink more water, Ice bath and stretch outside of practice but some did say that they should get better at that. Rinehardt (23) said “When it comes to practice time I practice really hard on the hard days and I take the recovery days easy.”  

When runners were asked why they run there were a lot of different answers. Grady Fournier (25) said “Mainly for the friends that I have in it and it takes my mind off of everything else.” Fournier is currently the seventh runner and he is striving for more. Due to his injury right now he is set back but he’s excited to get better. 

Lucas Spurling (25) said “ I run because I think it brings the best in me with my mental and physical health. I’ve created my own life around running so if I was not running I don’t know who I would be.” Spurling is currently the fourth runner and he looks forward to running almost everyday. He talked about how everyone has bad days. 

Noah Bumgardner (25) said “ This is definitely the best environment I’ve been around out of all the sports I’ve played. Everyone is nice and has open loving arms.” Bumgardner talked about all of this when he was asked about the atmosphere and he is currently the second runner.

Like Murray said “ We don’t restart, we reload.”