By Kazi Nassif

As sophomore Henos Andebrhan rounded the final corner of the Regional cross country race, coaches and teammates counted runners that finished before him.

Andebrhan finished 50th out of 181 District 6A runners and set a personal record of 16:19. He said the course was tough and that he started the race too fast.

“I pushed way too hard on the first lap of the course, so on the second lap I slowed down a lot, and it was really hard,” Andebrhan said.

Andebrhan said trying to keep up with the race leaders at the beginning drained his energy early.

“On the first lap when I tried to keep up with the top ten guys I couldn’t, so on the second lap I stayed towards the middle and kept my own pace,” Andebrahn said.”But it still got really hard, and I couldn’t push any harder than I already was,”

Andebrahn said the team made great strides since last year, including himself.

“I think everybody did very well,” Andebrhan said. “Last year, if their time was 21 minutes, they were able to cut a good amount off of it, making their time about the low 19 and low 18 minutes,”

Head Coach Elizabeth Brown said the 60-athlete team improved throughout the season.

“We lost some solid seniors and I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” Brown said. “But what was really amazing and awesome was that even though we had the biggest team I’ve ever coached, the athletes took ownership of the team. The transition of the new athletes onto the team was seamless because all of the veterans stood up and took initiative.”

Brown said while there was a lot of improvement on the physical side, the mental part of the sport was also a key to the success of the team. She said that starts with a team mentality.

“A lot of people think cross country is an individual sport but it’s really a team sport,” Brown said. “My last runner isn’t running by themselves, I’ve got 10 of my kids running the last 100 meters with them because that’s their teammate, and they’re going to make sure that that runner is welcome and valued amongst the team.”

The best 5,000 meter times for the men this season went to Henos Andebrhan and senior Ahmad Yehia, who posted 16:19 and 17:50 respectively. On the women’s side, seniors Ariana and Alyssa Warren topped the list with times of 21:53 and 22:18. Brown said she’s looking forward to carrying the improvement seen this year to next season.

“Hopefully we can compete in regionals every year, and maybe even state,” Brown said.