Bengal Cross Country Wins

Cross country is known for running far distances on trails and hills. After a recent interview with Assistant Coach Caitlyn Metsack, Beckham students can gain insight into the lives of cross country runners.

Interview Question for Assistant Cross Country Coach, Caitlyn Metsack “Coach Met”

What is Cross Country all about? Cross country is primarily a team sport and we run a lot of mileage. It’s not on the track so we run all over, that’s the cross country part. We do trails, the beach, the bridge, we run around the school, and we are training for 5Ks- so each race that we run is about 3.1 miles and the team part of it that’s different from track and field is that the closer you are together in a race the better it is and the more likely you are to score more points, so when we train we encourage them to have a pack mentality.

What’s the biggest challenge the Lucy Beckham team has faced this year? Change because both Coach Domin and I are new to cross country here and it’s coach Domin and I’s first time coaching- and my first time ever coaching so the kids have been used to different coaches in the past years and all of us coming from different places made it more difficult to get into good routines but its coming together now.

How have you as a coach helped the team overcome this challenge? I try to connect with the kiddos that don’t already know people on the team and I encourage people to run together. Coach Domin and I make the teams and I pair people strategically by pairing a quieter runner with a more outgoing person which has formed new friendships with some people that maybe they wouldn’t have run with if they didn’t have that opportunity.

After being ranked 8th, how does it feel to have your boys team place 1st and your girls team place 5th overall in the CiCi’s Sandhills Invitational? It feels surreal, and we’ve been training since the very first week of June, every single week, so we’ve put so much work in and as a coach we see little growths and little wins and to see it come together after all that time it made me jump around and I had, like, goosebumps, so super stoked.

CiCi’s Sandhills Invitational 2022

The Lucy Beckham cross country team finished in first place overall for the most recent invitational. This is a big deal for the team, due to the fact that Lucy Beckham went into this invitational ranked 8th place. Senior captains Reid VonRosenberg and Matthew Tucker impressed everyone with their outstanding placements. Rosenberg placed 2nd place out of 164 runners, and Tucker placed 25 out of 164 runners. Daniel Huggins, a sophomore at Lucy Bekham, placed 7th out of 164 runners, which is very impressive for 16 year old Huggins. As for the girls, senior captains Ali McInnes and Delia O’Lunney also showed out for this invitational. Julia Goldman, in just 8th grade,  placed in the top 5 runners, making her, outstandingly, the girl’s top runner for Lucy Beckham.