Last Week’s Recap
Things are really wrapping up now. This past Wednesday, we held our end of season banquet (if you can call a pizza party a banquet!) at Northridge in the main cafeteria area. This is an opportunity to recognize each athlete for their hard work during the last 5 months, and to provide special recognition to our senior athletes, many of which have dedicated four years to our program!
This year we had a very large, outstanding group of seniors. They have left a big imprint on our program, of which the athletic success is just a small part. It would take too long to recognize the accomplishments of each one, but they have been substantial. This is a group of outstanding kids who will go on to do great things, I have no doubt.
Here are NRXC’s 20 seniors!
In addition to recognizing our seniors, we also handed our various team awards to highlight athletes who made special contributions to our program this year. These include the Knight’s Code Award, MVP Awards, Most Improved Award, and Rookie of the Year Award. We have many athletes who were qualified to receive these awards, and it’s hard to limit it to this select group, but each winner is very deserving!
Knight’s Code Award
The winners of the Knight’s Code Award were Lily Griffith (Sr.) and Parker Ewell (Jr.). This award is given to the runners on our team who best exemplify the qualities of excellence as a runner and as a teammate. We have so many great runners on NRXC, but Lily and Parker set themselves apart by their personal work ethic and commitment to being a friend and teammate to everyone else on the team.
(2024 Knight’s Code Award Winner, Girls Team)
(2024 Knight’s Code Award Winner, Boys Team)
Most Valuable Player
This year’s most valuable player awards went to Lexy Cluff-Baylon (Sr.), and Aaron (Sr.) and Nathaniel (Sr.) Eskelson. The MVP award is not only awarded for excellence in performance, but also for overall contribution to the program. Lexy, Aaron, and Nate are hard workers who set the standard for effort and commitment that our other runners try to emulate. These three seniors are proof of how consistent hard work results in eventual excellence.
(2024 Girls MVP)
(2024 Boys Co-MVP)
(2024 Boys Co-MVP)
Most Improved
The Most Improved award is given to runners whose performance improvements over the course of the season have been truly impressive. Anna (Sr.) and Samuel Elstad (So.) were first year runners on NRXC who, by the end of the season had slashed minutes off of their 5K time. Carson Fershtut (Sr.) is a senior who has, through hard work and dedication during the offseason, made remarkably improvements to become one of NRXC’s top varsity athletes.
(Girls Most Improved 2024)
(Boys Co-Most Improved 2024)
(Boys Co-Most Improved 2024)
Rookie of the Year
The Rookie of the Year award is given to the newcomer to NRXC whose performances and attitude were consistently outstanding. Evelyn Cook (Fr.) and Zachary Carnett (Fr.) exemplify the attribute to conscientious, consistent, and committed excellence throughout the season, and turned in consistent impressive performances.
(2024 Girls Rookie of the Year)
(2024 Boys Rookie of the Year)
Aside from the team awards, every athlete who participated on NRXC was recognized on Wednesday evening for his or her unique contribution to our team and its success. And we would be remiss if we didn’t recognize their parents as well, who devoted countless hours to help make this past year such a success…THANK YOU!
And a special tank you to Lisa Greding and Cambria Hazard, who went above and beyond in helping prepare for the banquet and make it a success.
Speaking of Cambria Hazard, we are beyond excited to announce that she will be joining the NRXC staff as an assistant coach for this next season! Cambria brings tremendous energy and a love of cross-country and our athletes. They know and appreciate her and are excited to have her join us as an assistant coach, as am I!
Here is our season ending video and some photos of banquet. Warning, the video is long, but you can watch as much or as little as you want!
This Week’s Training
This week we once again have two separate tracks of training running in parallel. Those who are running at NXR will be finishing their final week of training for the season, with NXR scheduled for this Saturday, November 23, 2024. Their training is summarized in the table below and detailed in this week’s training PDF.
Our other runners are just finishing their end of season break. I will post about this on Slack, but it is vital for each runner’s performance next season (and for track in the spring) that our runners are running consistently this winter. I know that it is very difficult to get out when it is cold and icy outside. I will write more about this elsewhere, but I will say that great cross-country seasons (and great track seasons) are made principally during the winter months. Excellence in cross-country, as with excellence in anything, is obtained through consistent competence. Ed Eyestone, the phenomenally successful coach of the BYU Men’s Cross-Country program has reduced it to an equation: C2=E2 — consistent competence equals eventual excellence.
With that in mind, runners do not have to run hard workouts or tons of mileage during the winter months. But they do need to be consistent and competent in their training. I will have more to say about this later in the week when I put out NRXC’s winter training guide. But I want to emphasize that, if our runners train consistently during the winter months (and it doesn’t need to be anything more than easy miles and strides), they will be shocked at what they can accomplish. If they do not, they will wonder why they are not improving as much as other runners they see. Now is the winter to develop good habits and enjoy the fruit of your labor in the spring and fall!
| Day | Time | Location | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | OYO | OYO | Easy run+hill sprints. |
| Tuesday | 2:40 PM | Northridge | Workout, details in training PDF. |
| Wednesday | OYO (AM) | OYO | Get a recovery run in before you fly to Arizona! |
| Thursday | TBD | TBD | Light workout in Arizona. |
| Friday | TBD | TBD | Easy run+strides. Course preview in afternoon. |
| Saturday | TBD | Toka Sticks Golf Club | NXR!!!!! |
| Sunday | Rest | Rest. | REST! You earned it. |
News and Announcements
NXR. Registration for NXR ends tonight. I received an email this afternoon telling me that race assignments would be final by no later than Wednesday. We are waiting to see if our boys team made it into the championship race, or if they will be running in one of the open races. The competition is fierce, and even the open race will be a great competitive opportunity! Those who are racing at NXR, please watch GroupMe and Slack for information throughout the week. I know that Cambria has requested runners send her roommate preferences and food allergy information, so please have your child do that if he or she has not already.
Uniforms. If you have not returned your uniform you have one more week to do so before fines will be assessed. You can bring them to Coach Hutchinson’s room during/after school, OR they can bring their uniform to me at 2:40 PM on Tuesday at the track. This will be our FINAL practice for the season. There will be no more opportunities to turn in your uniform!
Indoor Track. Those who are interested in indoor track, we will have a meeting in the Excalibur Room on Monday, November 25, 2024, at 2:45 PM. Parents and athletes are welcome.