This year, Berlin High School’s cross country teams traveled to the conference race in Wisconsin Dells and took home a huge win, becoming conference champions again. This race is one of the biggest races of the year for the runners.
“It’s the first of the championship races, so there’s a lot on the line,” cross country coach Roberto Lara said.
Berlin’s cross country team has a history of doing well at conference races. In total from the cross country plaques in the school’s hallway, Berlin has taken first at conference races nineteen times over the years. Lara also explained how important it was to win the conference race for Berlin High School.
“If you win conference, our school has a tradition where a plaque goes up on our wall forever. You can also see all the previous champions and all the years before,” Lara said, “If you win other meets that aren’t conference you don’t get a plaque on the wall, so you want to win conference so that you get your name in the school’s history books. It’s very important to win conference, and we did it last year, so we want to be back-to-back champs.”
The coaches aren’t the only ones who felt the importance of this race. Many other runners had important goals for themselves leading up to the conference race.
“I’d like to win. As for my time, I’m not super concerned about it because it doesn’t matter that much, and I want to stay fresh for sectionals and state,” senior cross country runner Thomas McCarthy said.
One thing that is different about the conference race compared to other races throughout the season is the way scoring works. Runners run their fastest, but not for the time aspect of it.
“We’re not even concerned about times; all that matters is the placement and what place they get in the race,” Lara said.
This aspect gives runners a new goal on the course. Many runners are more concerned about placing and scoring well than checking the clock.
“My number one goal was to win the race with my team,” senior runner Audrey Shattuck said.
In the days that followed up to the conference race, runners were training harder than ever with other runners to be as fast as they possibly could for the race. Many runners would run in groups to hope to boost each other’s spirits.
“My goal was to stick with my team, especially Alyssa, because I’ve been running with her often. I really think that all of us helped benefit each other, and helped bring each other up during the race,” junior Abby Shattuck said.
Abby also explained how by sticking with their team and encouraging each other to the best of their abilities, that she felt confident to try to achieve her goals in this past conference race.
“I wanted to at least score second team all conference,” Abby said, “ and I took 10th at the conference race, which is considered second team all conference. We had my sister, Audrey Shattuck, take first for girls, Thomas McCarthy took first as well for boys, and the girls team also took first.”
Although Berlin had two individual champions at conference, there were many more who found individual success. The girls team placed first overall with a total of 28 points at the conference race.
“We also got a plaque for our varsity girls team for winning,” Abby said.
Runners on the girls team attributed their success at the conference race to their overall bond as a team.
“We have such a successful team that I think we all help each other do well, not just individually, but each of us can contribute so much, making us a really strong team,” Audrey said.
Other than the plaque the girls team received, there were quite a few medals handed out to Berlin runners.
“I got a medal for second team all-conference, which is for the top 14. We also had six other medalists in the top 14 for girls, and two for boys,” Abby said.
Overall, both varsity teams have qualified for sectionals. Sectionals will be held Friday in Portage.
“I think we will really try to move on to state. We will also try just all running together, running as fast as we can, and seeing how far we can go,” Abby said.
