The 2024 State Cross Country state championships were hosted at Sugar House Park. Both the Highland girls’ and boys’ teams made it there and the team spirit was incredible. Because State’s location was so close to Highland, the Cross-Country team was able to excuse all their athletes to come and cheer on their teammates.
“We did really good and left it all out there which is something we have been working on,” Kaja Wilcox, a junior and varsity cross country runner, said.
The location did give Highland an advantage as they were able to warm up on the football field and stay warm in the team room which can be found in Highland’s dungeon basement.
Although both State and Regionals were held at Sugar House Park, the routes were slightly different because Regionals was a little over three miles whereas State had to be an exact three miles.
The Highland girls placed 9 overall with their top runner as Maddie Reeder who ran the 3 miles sub 18 minutes (17:58) and she finished in 6th place. She was also given one of the top ten medals.
“I think we all did pretty good! All the boys ran under 19 minutes which is a big accomplishment,” Benji Danse, a junior at Highland and varsity runner, said.
Danse was originally in 7th place on varsity before State. But during the meet he got 5th in Highland’s varsity team moving up by two places and making a new personal record. His whole team went crazy over this and were so happy to cheer him on to the finish line. Danse had truly locked in.
The Highland boys placed 20th overall in this competition.
The Highland Cross Country team started running when the weather was over 100 degrees in June and ended the season with a windy 48 degrees in November. For all the non-runners out there, this weather was terrible.
But the weather was not able to stop the momentum carrying this team forward.
The team had a total of nine meets and each time, they performed their absolute best. To prepare for state they adjusted and changed a few ways that they were training to help them grow in their physical abilities.
