Blazer teams win and lose at Springbrook

The girls cross-country team defeated Springbrook today with a total score of 18 points to Springbrook's 43. The boys lost 31-24 even though a Blair runner came in first place.

Juniors Halsey and Ashlyn Sinclair and Sophomore Johanna Gretschel came in first, second and third place respectively, achieving an automatic win. Junior Joshua Uzzell obtained first place in a record time of 17:28 for the course.

Assistant coach Angelique Bosse was pleased with the girls' victory and their personal accomplishments. "Overall I was really impressed with the girls. A lot of them ran their best times," she said.

Bosse said she did not know what to expect from the Springbrook boys team and that the Blazers were caught a little off guard. "It's disappointing to lose to them, but they ended up being good competition, " she said.

Coach Carl Lewin said he was happy with the scores and emphasized that the runners are starting to see the benefits of the workouts. He cited that the incorporation of weight training and hill exercises into practices contributed to the achievements today. "This is just the start of positive times that kids are going to experience throughout the season," he said.

Many blazers attributed a running technique called "pack running" to personal and team successes. In pack running, teammates with similar times run together in order to encourage each other to run faster than they would individually.

"The team came together and worked on our group running," said senior Joshua Gist, "We kicked it in the clutch." Ashlyn Sinclair also commended Gretschel for staying with the "pack" during the majority of the race. "Johanna took the pace really well and ended up coming in third," she said.