Closing Out the Season

 Jason and I attended Austin's cross-country banquet on Friday to mark the official end of the season. Austin was able to earn a varsity letter in his first season in xc. During that last meet, which was optional and during which Jason, my mom, and I were in Indianapolis, he ran his 5k in 18:18! He's the 39th fastest freshman in Salem HS history, of which he is very proud. We had a very good group of freshmen this year. They were 2nd in the State, but since they don't have a separate freshman team, we'll have to wait until these freshies are on the varsity team to really make an impact. 

His earning his varsity letter already doesn't exactly mean he'll be on the varsity team next year. It just depends on everyone else's times and year in school. Being only a sophomore next year, he could still be on JV. We'll see what will happen.

For now, he's starting the dive season, to which he's somewhat hesitant to get any further into since he decided he might want to do off-season training for track and xc, rather than dive. He doesn't have any close friends on that team, so I think that makes a difference too. He'll have to decide by next week.

At any rate, I'm super proud of the effort he put into his first season of high school xc and can't wait to see his success in the seasons ahead.

Receiving his letter and certificate of participation.

A close-up of the whole team.

The fast and furious freshmen!

Their special pose.

Sam and Austin started running together when I coached the running group STRIDE in their 4th-grade year.

Owen and Austin have been friends since they were babies.

This looks wonky here because I just took a picture of one they had on the slide show. I'll have to order it to hang on my wall. It's a very good depiction of his push at the end of a race.