The Prescott Cardinals had two boys medal and finish in the top five runners, and the girl’s team had four runners in the top 20.

It was perfect weather for a 5k on Thursday as runners competed in Spring Valley. For Prescott, it was the first of nearly back-to-back races they will have this week, an unusual but not unheard-of challenge for their athletes, according to Tim Phillips, head coach of the Cardinals cross country team.

“So today we kind of tried to control the pace of our top runners so that they could still get something out of the race but not be so worn down that they can't compete on Saturday,” Phillips said. “Normally you figure you need about a day per mile of recovery after a race.”

Ava Budworth, girls’ cross-country runner, said it isn’t the physical part of doing both races, it’s more the mental aspect.

“We were running off a pace today, so I feel like I hit those numbers pretty good. It's more difficult though because usually the pace numbers are slower, and it's harder to tell where you’re at. And, of course, you don't really want to run slower when you feel good,” Budworth said.

For Prescott runners like Ian Leask, this differs from the normal week, but it isn’t overly taxing considering their normal training regimen.

“Mondays and Tuesdays are usually like kind of harder days with a lot of fast-paced speed workouts and sprints, and Wednesdays we just do a light one-mile and stretches so we're ready for meets on Thursdays,” said Leask.

With sectional competition set to start in two weeks, the Cardinals have high hopes going into the postseason.

“Last year we took third and missed state by four points at sectionals, so that’s the goal this year,” Leask said. “I think we’re right there at the top, maybe a little bit behind, but I think we’ll have a good shot.”

Budworth is another one who has competed at sectionals multiple times but came up just short of going to state.

“From where we are in the season right now, I’m about 30 seconds to a minute faster than last year. Two weeks ago, I matched my personal record of 22:30,” Budworth said. “I think the team gets better each year. I'm still having fun.”

SV playing numbers game as they rebuild

The Spring Valley Cardinals had one boy finish in the top 10 and another boy and girl finish in the top 25 at their home invitational on Thursday.

The course is a bit different since the last time Spring Valley has been able to host a cross country event, which has been awhile, according to Head Coach Chelsey Ricketts.

“We had our elementary school project that happened 2020-2021. Then last year we didn’t have any due to some conflicts with other meets around the season, so it's been a couple of years since we've been able to host,” Ricketts said. “We've changed the course slightly since then to incorporate some of the back wooded stretch because cross country should be in the woods, and it should be a fun time.”

The teams look a lot different than the last time they were able to host, which is when their program was just beginning to peak.

“The boys team went to state two years in a row in 2020 and 2021, but we lost a lot of seniors last year, we’re going to be losing more, and we just didn't have the freshmen to replace them. We only had two returners this year for the girls team this year. We had seven returners for the boys, but we’re going to be losing five seniors next year,” Ricketts said. “The boys are definitely in the middle of our conference right now, if not maybe upper middle, but we don't always have a full team of girls, so it's hard to tell where we're at in regard to how they are.”

For the Cardinal athletes, this means they might be competing for individual state competition births instead of as a team. Boys’ top runner, Brody Gregg is consistently finishing top 10 at meets, and he hopes this will be enough to propel him to state if the team doesn’t make it.

“If we can make it as a team, that'd be great, but hopefully if we can’t, I can make it individually. There’s a lot of work to do either way,” Gregg said. “Originally, I was going to do cross country for two years and football for two years, but after we made it to state twice in a row, I decided to stick with it. Last year I was second team all-conference, so hopefully this year I can be first team all-conference.”

A finish among the top seven runners gets them first team all-conference honors, and finishing in the top 14 earns them second team honors. There are no honorable mentions in cross country.

With the way the Cardinal training regimen is built, Spring Valley’s runners are expected to peak just in time for sectional competition.

“I don’t know how other teams do it, but for our team, we start off kind of slower and then really cut off time around conference,” Gregg said. “In practice, most days we have set times that we work for and then slowly just shave off time. Every practice, every meet we’re trying to hit those times.”

EPC competing for individual All-Conference honors

The Elmwood-Plum City Wolves cross country runners have passed the halfway point in their season. They had their fifth 5k race of the year on Thursday, and they’ve got three or four more races to go before sectionals in mid to late October, depending on how things go. Head Coach Mike Merritt said that, even though Elmwood’s runners can’t compete as a team in the postseason, they can still compete individually.

“We don't have a full team for either boys or girls. You need at least five to make a team, and we've got three boys and three girls,” Merritt said. “All our runners are sophomores or juniors, which means we'll get everybody back next year. Plus, we’ve got a lot of middle schoolers running, which is awesome. So, we're trending in the right direction, and I'm proud of that.”

Just because it’s a small team, doesn’t mean there isn’t a plethora of talent. Merritt thinks two girls have a very good shot of finishing on the all-conference team this year. One of those is Olivia Pullen who had her season-best time in their last meet.

“It’s my first cross country season. I ran distance track this year, and my coach encouraged me to join. I’ve medaled a few times, and I’ve gotten top five and top 10 multiple times,“ Pullen said. “I’m usually finishing in the top 10, unless it’s like 200 girls, then top 20. All-conference would depend on how things go. I just take it one meet at a time.”

Pullen said right now she’s just focusing on her training, which involves running much longer distances than the normal 5k she races at.

“We usually have a long run once or twice a week, and then we'll have a workout twice a week,” Pullen said. “Our long runs are either like usually six or seven miles, and our training can be anywhere from like four miles or five miles, and we'll do 800 intervals, which is basically where we run 800 meters at race pace, and then repeat that.”