Transcript
Joining us on coach's corner, KWBG, gonna talk to Kelly Grothus, Madder at Cross Country as Tigers get ready to run at State at the end of the week and Coach and I have been, well, she's been telling me some of the numbers. I feel like if she poured all the numbers to me, I might have had my eyes go cross. Kelly, there's a lot of strategy going into State, isn't there?
Race 14 points with us and a couple other schools and we just wanna find all the little things that we can do to try to get on the front end of that and score the least number of points so we can score as high as possible at the meet. Kelly, let's talk about the State qualifying meet first because I think that's always something that's fun to look back at because what a fantastic time for the girls and the boys. And I'm gonna start on the girls side of things, Coach, because I remember looking at where everybody was kind of sliding out and I don't look through it as much and as closely as you do, but I look at the teams that are gonna be there and I'm thinking, okay, Manson's gonna be there. I know they're pretty good, Newell Fonda, Panorama. There's some other schools in there that have individuals. What'd you think about the total of teams that were there or who was there? And then the day two when it was time to run. Yeah, it was a solid district. I mean, like you said, Manson Northwest Webster was a team that was not real far behind us at another meet and Newell Fonda is a team that scored well and ran well at the State meet last year. So we've got our eyes on them, but also knowing as a girls team, at least if we're talking about that, that we'd beaten Manson Northwest Webster and just needed to look at how they'd progressed as a team over the season and how we'd progressed as a team over the season and set some specific goals of making sure we had our runners in and had lower points than them. So that was a great way to focus the kids a little bit in a kind of data-driven discussion of numbers, the points and how many metal and things like that, but in a lower pressure situation than State will be and help them see that they can be successful in that and having a specific goal, someone to target or a teammate to stick with or a time to try to get or a place to try to get and just work at something specific as an individual that then is gonna contribute to a good team result at the end of the day as well. Kelly, if I would have told you four of your Tigers on the girls side, we're gonna be in the top 15. Would have you been surprised or did you feel like this was possible? You know, yeah, that was definitely possible. And we had three metalists and one at 11th, the first place out of metals, but points are really what mattered there the most. So being able to, that was our best case scenario. That's exactly what we asked all the girls to do. We really more gave them, this is how close you need to be to your teammates and at State, we wanna be this close to our teammates, which is not really something you have control over in the race because you don't know where your teammates are and they're not looking at their watches, but to just have a focus of how am I gonna get there and what's the strategy to get to that point. So they didn't surprise us by any means but they definitely showed up and did what they needed to do. Well, and just be, heck, we could even say, I mean, you had five girls in the top 30, actually six in the top 30, which is tremendous. What was the post match, the post run like there for the girls? They had to be ecstatic. They were very excited and at the same time, they talk about, you know, sometimes we don't always get excited because this was the goal all along. We didn't surprise ourselves, this is what we wanted. We would have been disappointed if we didn't get it, but they're pretty no nonsense. They know what they need to do and they go get it. So at the same time, they have a ton of fun, celebrate each other very much. We didn't have any PRs on this very, very challenging course, but some of them ran much faster than they had run there. Actually only our seniors ran there as freshmen. So we look at improvement over three years, like how far you've come as a runner and as a leader on our team. So we definitely have fun after the state qualifying, meet with pictures with the banner, and you can tell that there's some excitement for going into state, but also just a little bit, I don't wanna call it relief, but away off their shoulders and they definitely walk a little lighter and have a smile on their face knowing that they did something so cool, but at the same time, our seniors have only known this. They've won, we've won the state qualifying meet for four years in a row. So well, it's exciting and fun and we're really proud of the girls and ready to go. This was also just one step and an expectation toward a bigger goal. So trying to celebrate it and keep it very normal as we get ready for that big meet at the same time is important for us. Preparation for the girls this week, coach. How's it been going? And boy, Friday looks like it could be a little wet. What does that go in when you start talking to them about the meet? Yeah, you know, I'm really glad with rain in the forecast for the next couple of days and maybe Friday at the state meet that we're the first race. Of course, it would be a good shape for 1A. It's not always that way every year because you rotate when each class runs. So we will handle whatever weather comes at us. That's what we've done all season. We prepare to run in 90 degree days. We prepare to run in 30 degree days and we'll just show up and compete against whatever the weather throws at us. Boys then, boy, what a fantastic day. Three kids in the top 15, Hudson, Jacob, and also Chris were in the top 15. They score 74 points. They're the runners up. They get an opportunity to run at state as well. I thought competition, boy, we talk about how good it was on the girls side. I thought the boys side was loaded up, Kelly. That had to be a lot of fun once the points were all tallied up. And we found out that matter of boys are heading back to state. It was a lot of fun. For them, again, it wasn't unexpected. The goal was qualify for state. You don't get that close to it and not try to make it. But we really had our eye on the top five teams knowing that we had to all run our best to qualify. And if that was our goal, surely it was other teams. And if we're capable of it, surely other teams are as well. So it came down to at this point in the season, if you're a 1A team, you may have someone running hurt or out because they're injured. So who's gonna show up on the line? And we knew we were in the best shape of the season and all ready to run some excellent times. So we had some runners that really stepped up and if someone struggled, that's why you have a whole team there. So that was, they were thrilled to be able to make that big season goal. Their goal for the first meet of the year was to not get last. And at that point, we told them you are a much better team than that. And let's reestablish the goal. But we have commended them. We've come a long way from the goal is to not get last to qualify for state. So they've worked together really well and grown as runners and gotten in shape. And we're really proud of the progress they've made, but see there's a lot of room to continue making progress, not just at the state meet, but in the future years as well. Kelly, it's not a huge veteran group, I guess is the nice way for me to say, this is a young group of guys that are getting a chance to run at state. They gotta be excited, not just for this year. And I'm not saying that there's no seniors because obviously we do, but this has gotta be a group that kind of looks to, okay, let's go experience. And then the next couple of years, let's go get this. Yeah, and we've talked about that with the kids, that this week is really special and fun. And we are gonna go in with a goal. You know, we are not probably a favorite for a trophy on the boys side right now. And that's okay, but we're still gonna go in and do more than just show up and have fun. We've got some goals we wanna accomplish. But a really important thing is to get experience for our younger runners because we do expect them to come back. And then they can come to their younger teammates who hopefully are running with them at the state meet next year, share their experiences and help everybody get ready to do even better. So we have an end of our season in mind in some two days, but we also are looking for what, how we can use that as a step towards next season as well. Kelly, have a blast on Friday. I'm gonna hope for this nice, I feel like a nice couple of hour window for the smaller schools. I think you guys deserve that. How about a nice little small window of no rain and then whatever it happens afterward, so be it. You know, the athletes will do great in rain, I think, at least our team will. So I'm totally fine with rain. Maybe, you know, during warmup and when all the fans and parents are standing around, it can be dry, but I wouldn't mind a little rain when the gun goes off. I love it. Kelly loves a little weather that she's not even worried about it. Coach, have a blast on Friday. Congratulations on a fantastic season. Thank you, Ryan. You bet. Kelly growth is again joining us, across the country here in coaches' corner.
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