Under the direction of first-year head coach Justine Sparks is a Mingus Union High School cross country team filled with faces new and old.
Sparks leads a returning core of girls and a set of mostly new boys that include four freshmen.
“It’s going really well, we have a lot of hard workers showing up already and a lot of people who are excited about it,” Sparks said.
The Marauders alumna was a last-minute hire, but the runners have not seen any slip ups in their training.
The pace of training is based on last season’s best times, and the type of workouts overall are different from past seasons. Sparks said that her runners are performing well already, comparatively speaking.
“They’ve mentioned that it’s different, but not a bad different so that’s good feedback,” Sparks said. “I’ve just kind of been incorporating what I know, which is a mixture of speed and getting their endurance up.”
Only two weeks in, the newer runners are hitting around 20 miles a week while the veterans are between 35 and 40. The mileage will only increase as the season progresses.
No matter the differences, the Marauders maintain their sight sets on one simple thing: Run faster.
Sparks said that the girls set a goal of running their 5-kilometer races under 21 minutes and the boys under 20. Senior Cody Wager wants to get below 18, to which he came within about 30 seconds as a junior.
Wager is the old dog amongst a group of young, freshmen pups. Sparks signaled natural athleticism and a hunger to work hard as their greatest attributes, and they have already got some experience in their shoes.
“This year we got four freshmen coming out so I’m really excited to see. Every single one of them ran a middle school year so I’m really excited to see how we’ll perform,” Wager said. “I think we’re going to do really good, I think we’ve got a pretty solid team, so far with the baseline we’ve been doing.”
For the girls, senior captain Hannah DeVore and junior Meg Babcock lead the way. They are all keeping pace with their 2016 times at practice already, putting them in better shape for improvements in 2017.
“I’m really happy with their work ethic, they’re not really the type of girls that I have to get on; they’re not slacking off, they’re really self motivated,” Sparks said.
But more than running day after day, the team focuses on sticking together, which is one of the team’s other goals — to create a family environment.
“That’s a huge focus on the team is making sure everyone is improving,” Sparks said. “When you don’t have to teach that it puts you off in a really good place.”
The Marauders debut at high altitude at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at the Peaks Cross Country Invitational in Flagstaff. Wager pointed out a night race called the Desert Twilight in Casa Grande as a personal favorite, which takes place Friday, Sept. 29.
