By Riley Wang, rw163@uakron.edu
On September 3, 2024, AEC running club ran its first official cross country meet. The club ran alongside North cross country at the Woodridge Quad Meet against Woodridge, Streetsboro, Rootstown, and Walsh Jesuit high school. The meet was run on Woodridge Middle School 5k course, a relatively flat course that produced fast times for all the runners. There are three boys on the AEC team, freshman Leo ward, sophomore Griffin Davis, and junior Harlem Parsons. In addition, there are four girls, sophomore Elaine Zhu and juniors Riley Wang, Lena Cao, and Londyn Garden. The North Cross Country team also contains many Akron Early College students. On the boys side there are sophomore Nischal Dahal and seniors Dipesh Chuwan and Ushtaj Gurung. On the girls side there are freshman Salina Lingden, juniors Marely Morales-Lara and Rizzu Rai, and seniors Ayusha Subba and Kretina Rai. The coach for the AEC team is 9th grade World History Teacher, Mr. O’Neil, a great runner himself who ran the prestigious Boston Marathon twice. Mr. O’Neil is also the assistant coach for North cross country, so both teams practice and race together.
Everyone was anxious and excited for the first meet of the season, especially at the start line. However, as soon as the race started the adrenaline rushed in and everything was fine. It was exhilarating to hear teammates, coaches, and teachers cheering me on in the race. All the support made me run faster even though I was sure I was going to die of exhaustion. Every runner ran their heart out at the meet and many achieved personal bests. But unfortunately, the AEC running club was unable to score at the meet because we did not have enough runners. A minimum of five boys and five girls is required for a team to score.
The first meet serves as a baseline for every runner, and we try to chip away the times the following meets. AEC running club and North Cross Country had been building up mileage since summer. All the members had spent countless hours running to build up the endurance to run 3.1 miles, the usual distance run at a high school cross country meet. Cross country season is coming to an end for the AEC running club, and our last meet is the Akron City Championship. The City Championship will begin at 5:00 p.m, on October 9, 2024, at Goodyear Heights Metro Park. Therefore, if you and your friends are free that Wednesday, you should definitely come and cheer on Wallaroos!
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