It is that time of year again when schools are back. With school starting up, it also means the start of the fall sports seasons. The fall sports at Lewis Cass consist of boys’ cross country, girls’ cross country, football, boys’ tennis, and girls’ golf. In my personal opinion, arguably the hardest sport to participate in during the fall season is cross country. Imagine running every day of the week, in the scorching sun some days, and raining on others. Cross country runners run many miles every day to train.
The Lewis Cass boys’ cross country team may not be growing in size, but they are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Last season junior, Ben Jay, broke the school record for the five-thousand-meter race. According to Athletic.net, Jay ran the race in the record time of 16:03.7, beating the old record by 16.7 seconds held by Cail Brown.
I had the opportunity to talk to Coach Matt Benner to see what he thinks about the upcoming season. The first thing Benner said he was looking forward to was “…Not having to coach Kylie Logan. (lol)” Then, Benner said the boys are looking great because they have three boys returning who ran at the IHSAA Regional race in Brownsburg, including state qualifier, Ben Jay. Benner continued to state, “ Kaden Hughes and Colton Copeland will be the senior leaders, and looking forward to helping teach our young team what it means to be a King. We have some freshmen and some move-in athletes who are going to double our team size from last year.” Benner also said, “Roberts Tale will be our first foreign exchange student to run cross country in about three years. He is showing signs of having some quality running ability. In addition to him, we have young athletes who will be fighting for the 4-7 spots on the varsity team. All of them have the ability to earn their varsity letter this year.”
In speaking to the number one runner junior, Ben Jay, getting his insight about how he feels about the upcoming season. Jay stated he is ecstatic for the upcoming season because he enjoys running a lot and spending time with his friends and Coach Bonsett. Ben is also looking to break his own record this season.
Overall, the boys have put in the extra work over the summer and have the ability to be a solid team this year. Coach Benner and the team are excited for this upcoming season and are looking forward to seeing if the returning three can run under seventeen minutes. Benner said, “Winning Sectional and the TRC meet are going to be tough tasks, but we still have an outside shot. We finished 16th at Regional last year, and I think that we can improve on that this season. Time will tell how these young athletes will perform.” The boys’ first meet is August 19 at Twin Lakes with the start time of 5 pm. Good luck on the upcoming season, boys!
