A moment away from the grind

Running a long cross country race on a very hot, humid day can be a grind.

It means running up and down hills, running in circles, following someone you don't know and even falling down once in a while.

So why do they run? The reasons are many.

But every once in a while you need a respite, just a moment to take your mind off the long, hard grind.

Take Paige Welsh of Minneota for instance. She heard her name, uring her to keep going.

Suddenly she turned to see where the support came from. When she saw the camera, Paige took just a second away from "the grind" for a little fun.

She gave a quick thumbs up and a smile to the photographer — then went back on her merry, hot and humid way!

Sometimes a "moment in time" can tell the story. It did for Paige Welsh.

At the season-opening race at Lakeview last week, Coach Beth Jessen said, “I felt the girls ran very nicely and about where they would be.”

About the meet-winning run by Grace Drietz, she said, “This was Grace's first varsity experience, yet it came as no surprise to see her win the race with how she has been running since last spring.”

The coach added, It was great to see Faith (Traen) and McKenzie (Ruether) stay right with her too. Makenzie Hemish ran in her first varsity race as well, so it was amazing to see her come in as our sixth runner.

“Kameron King also moved up in her position where she has run on the team and had a great first race of the season.”

As for the boys, she said, “Anthony ran where I thought he would, but as a team I know they were disappointed. The heat was a factor, but they need to learn to support each other and mentally help one another through tough races.”

The coach predicted, “It'll get better.”

Sean Dilley, Zack Hansen, and Jalyn Ufkin filled top positions in the team but several new faces emerged in our top seven including Jared Josephson, Blake Stoks and Tristin Biershenk.