By Benjamin Hong, Features Editor
On September 2, River Hill hosted the Top of the Hill Invitational, the first cross-country meet of the season. Seventeen schools were in attendance and their respective teams competed in four races over the course of four hours in the first true test of their summer training for the year. At Top of the Hill, River Hill performed well, with both the boy’s and girl’s junior varsity teams winning first overall. Varsity likewise had a good showing, with the boy’s varsity team placing sixth, and the girl’s varsity team taking fourth.
The team put an incredible amount of effort into preparing for this season over the summer, working on training and conditioning for the start of the season. A significant amount of that development and practice can be attributed to the team’s two coaches, Coach Boothe for the boys and Coach Hazzard for the girls. When asked about the development of this season’s roster prior to the meet, Boothe mentioned that no major changes had to be made to the boy’s varsity team, which increased the amount and intensity of practice they could undergo. Boothe explains that “last year we only graduated one senior, so the main core of my varsity is now seniors and juniors.” He gave credit for the majority of the team’s development to his captains, whom he praises for having done a “great job organizing practices and just getting the athletes there.”
Hazzard was thrilled with the way the girls’ teams performed, stating that she “was very happy with my team today. I think we did really well in the JV race, and I was happy with my varsity. Today was mostly about getting a basis to see where we’re at, and we’re going to take that and go forward from there.” Based on the team’s performance, Hazzard says she plans to stick with her current regimen, with a heavy focus on the mental aspect of the sport. It is the general consensus in cross country that given equivalent conditions and consistent physical training, the differentiating factor between two runners is their mental game. An instance of this in action is the importance of a runner avoiding getting caught up in relative placement during a race, as this can lead to exhaustion setting in very quickly. Hazzard reinforces her belief in the importance of the proper mindset by noting that “in this sport, once you get fit enough it’s 80% mental, so we’ve been working a lot on our mindset and the belief that we can win events and do well.”
This event was also a day when history was made. Alyssa Mattes, a current sophomore at River Hill, finished second in the girl’s varsity race and became the fastest female cross-country runner to have ever attended River Hill, running an 18:56 on the 5 kilometer course. She and Claire Sivitz, the first-place finisher in that race, both broke the 18:57 time record for the course, which was set eleven years ago in 2012 by Allison Krein. When asked about how she felt about this remarkable achievement, Mattes expressed that she “felt really good going to the meet. I trusted the training, and I felt that it was a good day.” She went on to say that her goals for the season are just “decreasing my own time. I broke my previous time goal, so now I’m trying to aim for an 18:20.”
The cross-country season is now fully underway, and River Hill athletes continue to train hard before and after school for the next meet of the season. However, as much as the spotlight often falls on the star runners of each team, Boothe emphasizes to both current and prospective athletes that cross country has a place for everyone, even those who may not always see success in competition. “That’s the beauty of cross country,” Boothe comments. “Everyone gets something out of it, whether it’s for the awards, a fitness goal or just bettering themselves. It’s about the journey as much as it is about the final results.”