JHop recently closed out it’s cross-country season with a championship meet in Largo, with the girls team placing ninth out of 14 schools and the boys placing 11th .
This reporter placed 40th out of 120 runners at the PCAC Cross Country Championship with a time of 12:38 in the Boys 3000 Meter Run Finals, the highest ranking on the boys’ team. Helen Munkittrick finished at No. 35 with a time of 14:49 in the Girls 3000 Meter Run Finals, according to flrunners.com.
Coach Kylie Mathews said she approached her first year as coach with a completely open mind on how she was planning on coaching this year’s team.
She said she was very surprised at the growth and improvement of the team as many of the team were sixth graders and were new to running.
“This was my first time coaching middle schoolers, so I had fun learning along the way,” she said. “I had a great time watching everyone improve and find their confidence. Running requires a lot of hard work and determination, and I think it takes a lot to commit to trying something like that at this age, even though we didn’t place each individual runner contributed to the team and tried to the best of their abilities.”
Coach Mathews also mentioned some areas of improvement she could target next season.
“I think I could’ve come into the season with a better try out and a more organized start to the season,” she said.
Certain members on the team have improved exponentially, she said.
“I would say Amelia (Scogna) and Emmett (Winfree) improved the most, they started off new to it, and they caught on quickly and really enjoyed the sport,” she said.
Mathews added that cross-country is a very vigorous sport and requires some training to maintain a general sense of physical fitness during the off-season.
“Running is something we can do year-round, especially in Florida, but working on strength is something that really helps and prevents injury, even simple exercises like squats, lunges, core work, and pushups can go a long way,” she said.
Coach Mathews said she’s excited for next year’s team and has already established a relationship with a lot of the newer kids who hopefully will be returning next season.
