Bulldogs practice hard for cross country season

With the season approaching, the Hampton-Dumont-Cal cross country teams are excited about the numbers of runners they have so far according to head coach Traci Moorehead.

“I think between the boys and the girls we should end up with about 20 runners roughly,” Moorehead said. “Which is a good number for us. We bring back some experience on the boys side as we have some senior leaders coming back with David Camarillo, Cade Alonzo and Tam Hindin. On the girls side our seniors this year will be Teaghan Bird and Lydia Maas and they will be able to help the younger ones with how things work.”

The team’s first meet is the IFA/AGWSR Invitational at Maynes Grove August 24 at 6:15 p.m.

Moorehead said that she is excited for the upcoming season.

“I think this will be my first year in eight years where I will have a full girls team,” Moorehead said. “So that will be exciting to be able to do the team scoring on the girls side of meets. On the boys side, our freshman that we are excited about, Conner Miller will be on the high school squad this year and he has put in a lot of time so far and has been running well these last few days.”

During the early meets, Moorehead said something she wants to see from the team is the runners continuing to build on their endurance.

“As we are able to increase that, then our times will start to come down and our speed will increase,” Moorehead said. “Just continue to work hard during practices to continue to get better.”

There are multiple runners for both boys and girls that can have an impact on the team according to Moorehead.

“Lydia Maas is a three-time state qualifier so we are excited to have her back on the girls side,” Moorehead said. “Teaghan Bird and Lily Hambly had been running real well the first couple of days. It is pretty early and hopefully as we continue to practice we will continue to get better. On the boys side we will miss Isaac Vosburg who is going overseas in an exchange program. But we have some good boys who will be back.”

Moorehead said that a positive from these early practices is how well the team gets along and how hard they work.

“They joke around and have fun together,” Moorehead said. “Just kind of creating a family type of atmosphere which includes anyone who has come out for cross country like our new freshmen and we have a couple of foreign exchange students joining the team so it is a very welcoming group. “In addition to that just how hard they work. Running is hard and sometimes not even fun, but they come to practice, show up and are ready to get after it.”

As the season moves along, Moorehead said that she would like to see the team stay healthy and the times go down as they have more meets under their belts.

“It is not always apples to apples with the course, it is not like a track which has the exact same 400-meters,” Moorehead said. “With a cross country course it can be hilly, it can be flat, it can be whatever, but for the most part we are just looking to see the majority of the team’s times are getting better every single race.”