HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM: State experience big for Xavier runners

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By Katherine Bauer, Xavier junior

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Xavier girls' cross country team and senior Jacob Schmitt ran in the Class 3A state championship in Fort Dodge earlier this month, giving the team and coaches new experiences and many memories.

This was the first time since 2009 that the girls' team ran at state. It also was the first state meet for head coach Bryan Jones and assistant coach Kyle Mallie.

'The most memorable part for me,' Jones said, 'was running through the throngs of people to multiple areas of the course to try and find a spot to cheer the runners on. The atmosphere was pretty electric.'

The girls finished 12th with an average time of 16:33. Sophomore Jenny Dickes placed 15th in a time of 15:27 and freshman Emiko Coffey finished 20th in 15:35.

'It was really exciting and totally different than any other meet,' Dickes said. 'It was a great experience to run that course.'

Schmitt has run at state once before as a member of the team.'Jacob ran really well,'  Jones said, 'nearly running a personal record.'

He finished in 16:49 to place 15th.

'This year's experiences will definitely give me a point of reference to work from for next year as far as building better training programs,' Jones said.

This season has helped to the teams grow, improved individuals and gave the new coaches a lot of experience.