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Pirates cross country wraps up season
  
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By Tom Munds
Overall, it has been a pretty good season for the Englewood High School cross country team, according to the Pirates coach.
“All our kids worked hard, trained hard and did a good job for us,” coach Bill Ambron said. “Our focus was improvement and we saw all our runners improve. Some of the kids dropped their times by more than two minutes. We didn’t win meets or races but it still was a good season for our young team.”
Numbers were a problem for the Pirates, particularly for the girls team. A team has to have five runners to post a score as a team. Ambron said the Pirate girls didn’t have enough runners to score team points until league and regionals. That was when some of the cheerleaders joined the team. He said the coaches and the whole team really appreciate their efforts.
On the boys side, Ambron said the Pirates are a young team, with C.J. Horan the only senior.
He said if all the kids come back it will be a good foundation for the 2010 team. Also, Englewood Middle School began a cross country program for the first time this year. Ambron said there were three eighth-grade boys and two eighth-grade girls who ran with the middle school.
“If our letter winners return and we get the eighth-graders who are running cross country at the middle school next season, we could be an improved team,” he said.
The regular season meets for cross country teams are like competitive practices. Basically, the whole season is preparation as the runners focus on having their best performances of the year at the final two meets, league and regionals.
At the Oct. 16 Class 4A Metro League Cross Country Meet at Clement Park, the Pirate boys team finished eighth and the girls team recorded a team score for the first time this season.
The event was like a tune-up for the all-important Oct. 23 regional meet at Clement Park, the meet that determines what teams and individual runners go to state. There were 16 teams at regionals. The top four teams went to state as well as any runner who finished in the top 15 but wasn’t on one of the state-qualifying teams.
Like any state-qualifying competition, regionals were tough. Englewood knew going it that it was only a remote possibility the Pirates could qualify as a team. But, the team’s leader all season, C.J. Horan, had a shot of qualifying for state as an individual
“One of our team goals was to do all we could as coaches and teammates to help C.J. (Horan) qualify for state. He worked hard all year and then ran pretty well at league. But he knew he had to pick up the pace to have a chance of going to state.” Ambron said. “The competition was very tough. No kid tried harder and C.J. ran his heart out. But there were quite a few outstanding runners and they set a blistering pace from start to finish. Although he gave it his best effort, he wasn’t able to stay out front with the leaders and that’s a must to finish in the top 15 in order to go to state.”
Junior Joe Howard ran well at league, finishing in a personal-best time of 20:24.
“I just ran my race,” he said after league. “I ran a good pace early and, although I was really tired, I picked it up and had a really good run the final mile of the race.”
Howard bettered his league time by two seconds at regionals as he finished 64th in the field of almost 100 runners.
The youth of the team is a plus for the future of the Pirate boys cross country team, the coach said.
“The kids worked hard and really improved for us,” Ambron said. “For example, freshman Tucker Horan cut his time by almost 2 1/2 minutes from what he ran at the first meet of the season and his personal best time. The same is true of freshman Brian Agular.”
All season, Kayla Eichmann has led the Pirate girls team. At league, she ran well and, at regional, she ran a personal-best time of 25:11.
“I enjoy running and last year was the first time I ran cross country,” she said after the league meet. “I found I like running the races. I like the challenge of catching other runners but I really like the challenge of beating myself, bettering my best times. I plan to stick with cross country and I hope I can do even better next year.”
In cross country, a school needs at least five runners to be qualify to post a team score.
Throughout the regular season, Englewood had three and sometimes four girls running in the races. Finally, at league, cheerleader Amy Johnson joined the team and, for the first time, the Pirates posted a team score.
“It was the first time I have every ran that far,” she said after the league meet. “It was hard. But it actually came a little easier than I would have expected but not as easy as I would have liked it to have been. I really don’t like to run a lot but I am thinking I might go out for track in the spring. But, if I do, I won’t sign up to run long-distance races.”
“All our kids worked hard, trained hard and did a good job for us,” coach Bill Ambron said. “Our focus was improvement and we saw all our runners improve. Some of the kids dropped their times by more than two minutes. We didn’t win meets or races but it still was a good season for our young team.”
Numbers were a problem for the Pirates, particularly for the girls team. A team has to have five runners to post a score as a team. Ambron said the Pirate girls didn’t have enough runners to score team points until league and regionals. That was when some of the cheerleaders joined the team. He said the coaches and the whole team really appreciate their efforts.
On the boys side, Ambron said the Pirates are a young team, with C.J. Horan the only senior.
He said if all the kids come back it will be a good foundation for the 2010 team. Also, Englewood Middle School began a cross country program for the first time this year. Ambron said there were three eighth-grade boys and two eighth-grade girls who ran with the middle school.
“If our letter winners return and we get the eighth-graders who are running cross country at the middle school next season, we could be an improved team,” he said.
The regular season meets for cross country teams are like competitive practices. Basically, the whole season is preparation as the runners focus on having their best performances of the year at the final two meets, league and regionals.
At the Oct. 16 Class 4A Metro League Cross Country Meet at Clement Park, the Pirate boys team finished eighth and the girls team recorded a team score for the first time this season.
The event was like a tune-up for the all-important Oct. 23 regional meet at Clement Park, the meet that determines what teams and individual runners go to state. There were 16 teams at regionals. The top four teams went to state as well as any runner who finished in the top 15 but wasn’t on one of the state-qualifying teams.
Like any state-qualifying competition, regionals were tough. Englewood knew going it that it was only a remote possibility the Pirates could qualify as a team. But, the team’s leader all season, C.J. Horan, had a shot of qualifying for state as an individual
“One of our team goals was to do all we could as coaches and teammates to help C.J. (Horan) qualify for state. He worked hard all year and then ran pretty well at league. But he knew he had to pick up the pace to have a chance of going to state.” Ambron said. “The competition was very tough. No kid tried harder and C.J. ran his heart out. But there were quite a few outstanding runners and they set a blistering pace from start to finish. Although he gave it his best effort, he wasn’t able to stay out front with the leaders and that’s a must to finish in the top 15 in order to go to state.”
Junior Joe Howard ran well at league, finishing in a personal-best time of 20:24.
“I just ran my race,” he said after league. “I ran a good pace early and, although I was really tired, I picked it up and had a really good run the final mile of the race.”
Howard bettered his league time by two seconds at regionals as he finished 64th in the field of almost 100 runners.
The youth of the team is a plus for the future of the Pirate boys cross country team, the coach said.
“The kids worked hard and really improved for us,” Ambron said. “For example, freshman Tucker Horan cut his time by almost 2 1/2 minutes from what he ran at the first meet of the season and his personal best time. The same is true of freshman Brian Agular.”
All season, Kayla Eichmann has led the Pirate girls team. At league, she ran well and, at regional, she ran a personal-best time of 25:11.
“I enjoy running and last year was the first time I ran cross country,” she said after the league meet. “I found I like running the races. I like the challenge of catching other runners but I really like the challenge of beating myself, bettering my best times. I plan to stick with cross country and I hope I can do even better next year.”
In cross country, a school needs at least five runners to be qualify to post a team score.
Throughout the regular season, Englewood had three and sometimes four girls running in the races. Finally, at league, cheerleader Amy Johnson joined the team and, for the first time, the Pirates posted a team score.
“It was the first time I have every ran that far,” she said after the league meet. “It was hard. But it actually came a little easier than I would have expected but not as easy as I would have liked it to have been. I really don’t like to run a lot but I am thinking I might go out for track in the spring. But, if I do, I won’t sign up to run long-distance races.”
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