See a shirt claiming to have held up traffic since 1925?

You’re probably in the presence of a cross country runner.

Northtown’s cross country team has made great strides this year. Members ran at eight meets over the season. Assistant Coach Mitsi Nessa said that the team did “really well. We’ve seen significant improvements in almost all of our runners and we’ve had kids medal at almost every meet.”

Cross country team members trained by running an average of four to six miles a day, working either endurance or speed. This prepares them for meets with races 5 km or 3.1 miles long.

Sophomore Brock Lorenzen joined the team counting on a rigorous training regimen. When asked what he’d expected from cross country, he answered, “to not get fat.” He and freshman Dodge Wasinger were first year cross country members.

Wasinger thought the experience was “pretty good. I’m a freshman on varsity.”

Lorenzen added, “You really have a sense of the team because everyone has a great time and works together.”

He thought he performed well.

“I never ran cross country before. I managed to run in one varsity meet and I didn’t come in last,” he said.

Both Lorenzen and Wasinger intend to return to the team next year.

Senior Sam Vollbrecht has run on cross country for three years, and regrets not doing it his freshman year.

In general, Vollbrect thinks the team has done well this year, although personally, he performed “very terribly, because I have a back injury.”

His best memory from cross country is pushing Michael Middleton into a puddle of mud his sophomore year.

Nessa describes cross country as a sport that creates “a very strong family feeling”. Coach Chris McCullough added that it requires a lot of dedication and hard work.

Their advice for potential members next year is to try to build up mileage and go ahead and join – it’s fun and it makes you tougher.

“A lot of kids are scared because we run, but we’ll get you there,” Nessa said.

On Oct. 22, cross country members ran at the Districts meet. The top thirty runners overall moved on to Sectionals, with the chance of moving on to State.