Warhawks boys cross country looks to make name for themselves

The West Fork Warhawks boys cross country team has seen an increase in the number of runners heading into this season as they get ready for the upcoming season.

Head coach Zachary Ortloff said that a goal for the team is to place better at meets.

“I know last year we did not really have the numbers and at some meets we did not have enough guys to score as a team,” Ortloff said. “So trying to get up in the rankings in some of these meets and place higher and maybe try to get some first and second and third team placing will probably be the big goals for the team this year.” 

The Warhawks’ first meet is at the Cross Country Invitational at Mercy Medical Center North Iowa West campus on August 29 at 4:30 p.m.

Having more runners on the team this year has added more competition to the team according to Ortloff.

“I know last year there were some points where people did not feel super threatened by other people on the team when it came to their spot,” Ortloff said. “Whereas this year that lineup might be changing every meet possibly because of just the amount of people we have out. So we could see a lot of changes in the sixth and seventh spot on the varsity team of just different guys on the JV squad who have a good meet here or there and are able to show up on the varsity lineup.”

To help get ready for the start of the year, Ortloff said that he is getting the new runners used to the team’s system and how they run practices as well as getting the returning runners back into the swing of things.

“We are trying to get everyone back into that competitive spirit again after having this long summer break,” Ortloff said.

With having more runners and competition for varsity spots this year, Ortloff said that the competition has made things wide open for the team.

“Some of these guys are probably not used to having a whole JV squad behind them. Where there are five or six other guys that can potentially take their spot on a varsity lineup if they have to be one of those guys,” Ortloff said. “And the people who are considered to be JV are going to face the challenge that they might not be on JV the entire year and they have a chance to crack into that varsity lineup if they really show a lot of improvement and anything is possible for these guys it is totally wide open.”

There are multiple runners who Ortloff said he thinks can have a big season this year.

“Edison Maske, Dylan Sturges and Ashyr Wiseman I think are going to be very vital to our team,” Ortloff said. “Then we also have two really good freshmen coming in who did awesome in middle school in Max Martinek and Owen Wedmore that I think have a chance of cracking into that varsity lineup and making a real impact in those type five.”

As the season moves along, Ortloff said he would like to see the team work on getting others to notice them as they reach the middle and later parts of the year.

“I want to see them start making a name for themselves,” Ortloff said. “I know we are probably not on a lot of teams’ radar considering how we were placing last year. So starting to see other teams maybe look at us a little bit differently than how they were looking at us last year is probably going to be the most exciting thing. We have a bunch of new people and we have a bunch of talented people from our track team who decided to come out and join the team as well. So getting people in there with a lot of experience in running who maybe didn’t think that cross country would be at the top of their list this summer but ended up coming out and I think we have a good shot of going out there and making some noise.”