The inaugural 2019 Shockwaves Cross Country season came to a close on December 14th with the USATF XC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP meet in Madison. We had 10 Shockwaves who qualified for the meet and 5 made the trip this weekend to compete in the National Championship. It was nothing short of a stellar day for the Shockwaves runners, with all 5 of our Shockwaves hitting PRs in their respective races. As you can imagine, running a cross country race in December in Wisconsin is not for the faint of heart. The day was brutally cold and the sun had decided to take a day off. Perhaps the only advantage to these conditions is that the course was frozen which was a welcome change from the Shockwave’s most recent events. The first event was the girls 8 and under 2k. The Shockwaves had several girls qualify, but Lorelai was the only athlete competing. She had a stellar race and racing her way (frozen hands and all) to 15th place, earning the highly coveted All-American status with a new 2K personal best time of 8:38. The conditions didn’t improve throughout the day as one might think, in fact the winds picked up later in the day stealing what warmth our Shockwaves runners had left in their bodies but once again they proved their training, preparation and will to compete, was stronger than the stinging grip of Jack Frost’s bite! In the 3k race, we had two Shockwaves in the boy’s race with AJ and Daeveyon A.K.A “D”. The field was enormous, with 364 boys on the start line. With kids from every corner of the country, the field was quicksilver fast as well, the winning time of 9:43 was nothing short of AMAZING! Our Shockwaves ran the best races of their season with AJ placing 81st overall and 30th for 11 yr olds with a time of 11:08 and D knocking another 2 minutes off his best time, clocking a 13:30 an amazing feet by both Shockwaves considering this is AJ’s first year running competitively and considering that less than 2 months ago at the Griffin Invite in October, D ran his 3K in 17:20! In the 4K race we had one Shockwave in each race with Abi in the girls and Caughnery in the boys. The fields were jammed packed with 314 in girl’s race and 381 in the boys race. Abi ran first, and as she so often does, she braved the frozen tundra with bare legs in her trademark blue shorts and fierce red racing braids to match. In a field loaded with talent, Abi truly raced her way to yet another 4K PR, placing 201st in a season best time of 16:42, an outstanding PR by 15 seconds. In the boy’s race, Caughnery was one of the youngest competitors in the 13/14 year old division, which was emphasized by the discrepancy in size between Caughnery and the other competitors. Armed with his trademark orange hat he executed his best race, speeding his little legs to 62nd place and 15th place for 13 yr. olds in a time of 13:48, a PR by 25 seconds! The Shockwave coaches are so proud of our athletes who gave every last ounce of effort at the USATF XC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP and are equally as proud of every Shockwaves runner who participated in this season. The Shockwaves are not one person, the Shockwaves are a team, a young, spunky, enthusiastic terrific team!
- jszuehls