This season, girls on XCP cross country sacrifice Friday nights, summers and sleeping in late, in order to train. This sport requires endurance, dedication, sacrifice and most of all passion.
Bella Gomez, a top varsity runner this fall season, said, “I wake up at 4:30 a.m. every day and make sure that my water, lunch and backpack are ready the night before. I also need my watch! That is essential to have.”
Xavier girls must be at a training site no later than 5:30 a.m. ready to run. The team spends mornings training from 5:30 – 6:45 a.m. and most of the practices take place at North Phoenix Baptist Church, the Brophy Track, and Granada Park.
“When we run at Granada we do hills after running on the canal, and it is hard after a 5-mile tempo but it helps build up strength. At North Phoe
nix Baptist Church we always do easy runs and that’s always a fun time to run and talk with friends,” Gomez said.
The XCP team has had a lot of victories this season coming in 1st and 2nd place in most meets. A significant victory took place at Thunderbird. On September 24, the team placed first overall in the freshman-sophomore and the varsity races.
Maggie Mostoller, Karina Zaveri and Caroline Vietor were the top three runners from XCP and were in the top ten for the freshman-sophomore girls division. They ran 2.8 miles all with times under 22 minutes.
“I think I did really well for being in the top three for Xavier,” Vietor said. “Although I had to run up hills, which can be unpleasant and very painful after running for a long time, I powered through and ended up winning a medal, which I was really proud of.”
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Last weekend, Xavier dominated the John Gleeson Invite in both the varsity and open divisions, taking first place in both divisions. Seniors Reese Brown, Nora Hinkle and Kylie Graf were the top three finishers in the varsity division. The top 15 places in the open division were all filled by Gators.
The XCP cross country team not only has to deal with physical pain from this individual and team sport but mental pain as well. A great piece of
advice that has been given to the team by coaches to help them this season is “Pain is Temporary.”
“When it’s mental pain, it’s a race against yourself, you want to see where your limits are,” Vietor said. “When it’s physical pain, it can hurt a lot, but as soon as you cross that finish line, the pain disappears.”
Dave Van Sickle has been the head coach for the XCP cross country team for 33 years now. Throughout this season, he has seen a lot of growth in these girls. For his runners, he has been an encouraging and inspiring leader.
“They have reached my expectations, they are training hard and their times are getting better. These girls have to be very passionate about this sport too, because if you aren’t passionate you’re not going to get out of bed,” Van Sickle said.
This weekend, the team travels to California for the Mt. SAC Invite, and in two weeks the team is at sectionals in Gilbert on November 3.
