On Tuesday, September 14, 2021, the PSHS Cross Country team hosted their annual cross country meet at their home course at the Poland Township Park. 

There were 11 schools at the meet, including: Poland Beaver Local, Canfield, East Palestine, Heartland Christian, Leetonia, Lisbon, Lowellville, Sebring, Southern Local, and Springfield. The high school girls raced at 4:45 and the high school boys raced at 5:20. 

The cross country team coach, Coach Grisdale said, “The meet went really well overall.  The weather was the typical hot and humid that we’ve gotten used to having every time we host a daytime meet.”

As for the team members, the meet seemed to go well. Although the race is objectively one of the tougher courses to run on, the team kept up a good pack and great effort.  

Our school trainer Kirstie supplied the team with lots of ice and water for the meet. The team members all worked on the course when they weren’t racing, making the race go incredibly smoothly.  

Sofie Myers, a senior on the team reports that she thinks the race went okay. She said that she was just “happy to be running with my teammates!” 

Logan Flament, a junior runner, gives a similar insight on the meet: “It went very well, we had a strong pack going that caught a lot of runners.”

Another senior runner on the team, Ellen Ethridge said that “my favorite part of the meet is talking with all of my friends and the girls before starting the race, and doing our girls team chant!” 

Before each race, the runners are supposed to set individual or team goals to meet during the meet. 

Flament said his goals for the race was to use this as a recovery race and help his teammates keep up a good pace and meet their goals. 

Ethridge said that her goals were “to finish the race and race as hard as I can because it is a really hard course.”

Another aspect that is really important for the team while running is pace. Different races require different types of paces per mile to effectively finish the race. The runners report that although the course was a tough one, they are overall satisfied with their paces throughout the race. 

Obviously, having a good head space is really important before entering a meet. Keeping a strong mentality helped the runners complete the race the way that they wanted to. 

Myers said that her oversight on the meet was “to treat the race more as a workout, to not stress myself out, and to try to have a good time.”

“My mentality going into the race is always easier when I think about how everyone has to run on our tough course together! I was very hyped because I love racing and competing and overall I’m very happy with how the race went!” Ethridge stated.

Similarly, Flament said that “my mentality was focused on having a fun time and helping my teammates run a certain pace.”

This is the 3rd annual Poland Cross Country Home Meet, and the team feels a strong sense of pride to have their own course. 

Myers said that having a home course brings the team together and provides more team spirit. 

Having a home course is also helpful to the team in other ways, Flament said, “It is nice to have a home course to practice and race on because I am very familiar with its layout come race time.”

Ethridge finishes by saying: “I love to be able to race at a home meet and show some good Poland Pride!” 

Overall, the team performed extremely well and hosted another successful home cross country meet!

“My favorite part of this meet was watching Mr. Banfield and Mr. Hockenberry appreciate the efforts of all of our runners!” Coach Grisdale finishes off.