Coaches Corner for October 29th: Cass Warson, Boone Cross Country

With us on coaches corner, KWB G going to talk some boon cross country. Cass Warson joining us. Torridors get ready to run at the state meet on Saturday as had two qualifiers with Whitney Chestnut and Briella Johnson. And first off, Cass, congratulations. Always great to have the season progress to the state meet. And you had to be really excited for Whitney and Briella. Yeah, especially for Briella, for how she started her season coming off tibia injury. And, you know, when it comes to someone who who we thought should have been a qualifier last season, but, you know, was coming off a concussion injury and then got sick, like in her head, she knew like she could have been up there with Emma and Whit last year. And then just up to tibia, it might have been a little bit of a impact mentally as to whether she was going to be at this point three months later. And but she put in the work during the season, you know, wasn't able to do much work during the summer. But I mean, she worked hard and she got to where she wanted. And for the first time, she'll have that state experience. And it kind of helps, I think, having with there with her so that those two can kind of talk about things because Whit's run the state course once before Emma will be there on Saturday. So maybe Emma can give some pointers or anything that Briella may have quit out to. With how they ran, you know, Whitney runs a 2004, Briella runs a 2015. Did they feel pretty strong to you, coach, as you're watching this race kind of unfold and I know it's tough to keep track of everybody, but you always seem to do a great job of knowing where everybody is and where they need to be. Did you feel like they ran pretty strong? Yeah, on a course like Winner said, I definitely think they ran really strong because that first mile at Winner said it's kind of downhill and they kind of run the outskirts of the golf course. And so there's a little bit of rolling hill there. But then after they pass the mile mark, it's kind of like they're going uphill and then they're going downhill and then right back up. And those last two miles of the course can be just killers, either mentally or physically, just kind of depends on how go of a hill runner you are and whether you can hang on in that part. But somebody who would be who we had been trying to chase down the last couple of years was Alexis from North Falk. We had never beat her. But for like, it seemed like a mile. It was just kind of her and Whit going back and forth, switching from nine to 10 to 11 in those positions. And then at one point, I just see Whit out in front and she's, you know, she's eventually ninth place and she's got a strong hold on that position. And then it just kind of, I mean, it seemed like Briella was in 13th for a good time. And, um, and then she, I mean, uh, Alexis ends up kind of falling back to her position. So then it's those two. And at the end I was talking to Briella and Briella was like, yeah, I didn't even realize that it was her that I was racing again. Um, so, and Alexis is a really strong runner. She swims, she runs in the fall. So, um, she's got a lot going for her. So tell me about goals. Now, girls have to have goals. Coach has goals. What is something that would, I mean, I know the girls want to run their best, obviously, on Saturday, that that's a given, but what have they told you coach? Where would they like to see themselves finish up when Saturday's done and the season is completely, uh, you know, official? Um, you know, uh, I haven't really talked to Briella quite yet about, uh, about the goals. Goals is kind of something that we talk about on Friday. Um, and both of them are kind of busy today. So we'd already rammed this morning. Um, and then Briella will kind of get some, uh, light stretching and stuff seeing how she's got a choir thing at North Colk today. But, um, I know wit kind of wants to be in that, uh, around where she was last year. Um, she finished 34th and at state last year. And I think she wants to be top 30 this year. Um, and, you know, it's always good to, uh, kind of see those times drop from one season to the next, um, when the course is the same. Uh, so you kind of have a general idea of how much faster you actually were, um, uh, this season because we really didn't, uh, duplicate any, any courses. Um, where like if we ran conference at winter or at, uh, at North Polk this year, we didn't run North Polk beforehand. So we don't exactly have that, that measuring stick to see how much faster we got, uh, at midpoint of the season to the very end. So just kind of measuring from one point of the season at state last year to, um, what she could run at state this year. I think, uh, I think we'll be good for her. Coach, we'll do a season wrap in a few weeks, but I want to talk about the state qualifying meet for the boys as well. Um, you know, a fairly young group at the top, not, not a young group overall, but a young group at the top with, uh, Austin Felder being a sophomore. Myers is a freshman. I know you brought an eighth grader up with ACE had been kind of your fourth runner most of the season. How do you think the boys, uh, finished up and ran at that state qualifying me? I thought the boys did well. Um, like we talked off air, it was like a second conference meet. Um, we had basically everyone there except ADM, ADM went to Glenwood, but we had Pella and Pella's coming into the conference next year. So it was just kind of like a future look at what the conference will look like next year. Um, but, you know, we kind of went in with the goal of. If at least beat see that, uh, Seidel and at least beat Clark. Um, I think those are two reachable goals that we can hit and that's something that the boys accomplished. Um, I think with it being such a young group at the top, uh, to me, I think that's a good look at what can hold on for the future on, cause they can only get better as they get older. At least that's how it should work. Yeah. Um, and I mean, it's going to hurt that we lose four seniors, uh, because we already do have such a small team. Um, and then it, I think when I was looking at my sheet earlier, uh, this morning, like we'll bring in four, uh, four freshmen next year. So, um, it'll just kind of come down to who decides to, uh, come back and repeat for another season and put that work into the off season too. I know we'll talk more about that down, but, um, I guess, you know, coach, one last thing for me before I let you go, whether it could be an issue on Saturday when it comes to rain and maybe wet conditions, depending on what we get Friday, obviously, will the course be kind of beat up. We'll wait and see. Do you talk to the girls about that before cast or is it one of those things where, Hey, here's what we're going to run in. Let's go. Yeah. You know, I just told the girls, make sure you've got your, uh, your, uh, other spikes handy if we need to switch out into our, our black pyramid spikes. So that'll give them a little more traction and this course isn't overly hilly, um, as if we were running at humble or, or, uh, even ballard or winter set, um, if it was wet, but, uh, I mean, traction isn't going to, isn't going to hurt anything if you've got more of it. But, um, you know, it's kind of something that we've been dealing with all year when we were running at Ogden, you know, the base of the hill, the girls had those, like those extra spikes in that kind of help with the down and, uh, not fall on their faces or their backsides or whatever. Um, and so, you know, it's, to me, it's nothing really new for them, but that's why we run these, these meets throughout the season. So we're kind of ready for anything when it comes to, uh, the last day of October this season, um, cause you know, it, it, we've run in 90 and we've run in almost 50 degrees. True. So, um, you know, I, to me, I think these girls are mentally tough. Uh, they've shown their physicality. I think they'll be ready for anything that, that, uh, is out there for them. Cause I know they're talking, they may talk some light rain Saturday morning, whether that's before we run or while we run. I think the girls will be just fine being ready for whatever is thrown at them. Yeah. Very true. Cass, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck on Saturday and we'll wrap up this season with you here in a couple of weeks. Thank you. You bet. Cass Worson again, joining us boom cross country here in coaches corner.