On Saturday, 19 Teays Valley Boys Cross Country runners had the same mindset as they toed the starting line. First, they wanted to run truly free - of expectations, stress, personal success, or setbacks. They also wanted to run for one another, or in other words, run as one. However, as they did both of these things, they ran selflessly, and through that, experienced true success. Many of the guys were able to achieve season bests, or lifetime personal records. All of them ran through adversity, aches, cramps, and anxieties, but encouraged one another every step of the way. Since there were two races, the guys ran around and cheered one another on while the other group competed. It was so fun to watch them carry flags, take pictures, get splits, and aggressively (and joyfully) cheer their teammates on. From the opening mile in the varsity race, the race quickly established a strong pace at the front of the competition. Reed led the way for the team, coming through the first mile in 5:06 and continuing to hold his position through the remainder of the race, running his most consistently split race yet. Behind him, Colt, Kellan, and Austin battled to stay within close proximity, creating a strong group of runners near the front. As the race progressed, the competition began to spread out, and the guys challenged themselves to maintain consistently paced splits in the middle portion of the race. In both the varsity and the open races, the guys continued to compete throughout the course, with racers passing opposing athletes late in the race and pushing through the final mile. Several athletes were able to negative split throughout the race and close aggressively, while others had to rely on the pace they established early to maintain their positions. Ian Duncan was able to finish a strong first race back after biking hundreds of miles over the last two months and just getting back into consistent running two weeks ago. The atmosphere of the meet provided a test of the team’s ability to race against a deep and competitive field, and the effort from all 19 guys helped make for a strong showing from start to finish. Finishing in the top seven this week was Reed Henderson (16:19), Colt Whitt (17:31), Kellan Durbin (18:08), Austin Rhoads (18:17), Caiden Blackburn (18:34), Ryder Sykes (18:42), and CJ Jett (19:10). In the varsity race, the boys finished 18th out of 22 teams. In the open race, the boys finished 8th out of 16 teams. Yesterday, we had 16 PRs out of our 19 athletes who ran. The average improvement among those 16 athletes was about 64 seconds. A major “Thank you,” to our bus driver, Kyler and Ian’s families for providing our Saturday morning snacks, Heather Rhoads and Julian Davis for taking great pictures, and Navin Warner for helping get splits. The Vikings return to the course on October 10 at Thomas Worthington’s Les Eisenhart Invitational. Official Results: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/276326/info