Central High’s Cross Country team captain Grace Craft is preparing her team for the season. The Bobcat Times reached out to Grace Craft to gain insight about the team.
Central’s Cross-Country team is one of the smaller teams on campus, so it’s very important that they stay consistent and uplift each other. When asked what she does to prepare for meets Craft said” I have to eat really well the day before and having a good mindset is important for that.” She explained how the most exciting thing that can happen during races is, “ Getting a Personal Record (PR) is always fun to aim towards.”
The team is still trying to reach their PR goals, so they’re going to keep working hard. When asked what her favorite part about the team and her sport is she said “The community helps. We have a lot of rough practices and the locals help them get through it, so they’re a huge help in our practices.” Everyone on the team is very supportive of their goals so their success comes very easy.
“We run. That’s the easiest way to put it. And we run in snowy and rainy conditions.” she said when asked how she would describe that sport to other people. Craft talks about special routes the team likes to take during their practices.“There’s a really nasty hill that we run up that’s about 800 feet of elevation.”
As some people may know this sport is very different from others. Grace told us about what those differences are. She said “I have a shirt that says my sport is your sports punishment. We train differently from other sports. Football and soccer are different because they’re open skills sports. We run with strategy more than skill.”
In this sport you need a good mindset to prepare yourself for the meets. Craft elaborated more on that topic. “Mental preparation is a big part of my races. If my warm-ups don’t go well, or if I didn’t prepare enough before the races, it would bring me down.” They’re also very goal-oriented. They have to work very hard to achieve those goals.
When Grace was asked what’s something the team could do better she said “We could work more on our warm-ups. We’re very unified but there have been some moments where during our team bonding moments some voices are heard more than others.” One of her personal goals for the team is to get under 21.30 time which is the qualifying time to go to state. Grace’s advice to newcomers is “ This sport is hard. You can’t escape that aspect of the sport. No matter what level you’re on it will always be this way. So the best way to get past that is to become a team player. If you’re a part of the team and we’re all supportive, it’ll get easier.”
The cross-country team is thrilled about their upcoming meets and excited to try to reach their goals and succeed in their sport.
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