The last time O’Dea's cross country team made a state appearance TLC's "No Scrubs" had just been released. Tiger Woods had just won his first PGA Championship. And the hit childhood television show SpongeBob SquarePants premiered.
The O’Dea runners have been preparing for the season in their own ways all summer, some running year-round, some coming off injury, and some who weren’t able to prepare as well because they spent the summer out of the country.
Whatever they did seemed to have worked because this is the first time they have made state in 25 years.
Junior Maddox Fox stated, “I wasn’t preparing for the season very much because I was coming off of shin splints and micro fractures in my bones so I started a week before the season started and ramped up to 40 miles a week which is a lot.”
It took a while for the team to come together, but they were clicking by the end. Coming out of districts with a full team was a big accomplishment for the Irish.
Fox was the top runner for O’Dea in the state meet placing 101st (17:00.3) followed by O’Dea senior Ryan Berta placing 107th (17:04.5) and right behind him Issac Lewis 12th placing 109th (17:05).
The meet had 20 teams and O’Dea placed 16th.
The cross country team is pretty happy with the turn out of this season.
“This season was the best we have been in 25 years,” Fox stated.
But the underclassmen have already started thinking about the future. O’Dea is going to start preparing and get ready for another great season keeping the momentum they have.
“What inspires me (to run cross country) is breaking barriers and seeing how far I can push my body.”
Going at this rate the Irish will have a new banner hanging from the gym in no time.
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