Cross-country practice starts Monday

Chadron State College’s cross-country team is one-of-two sports on campus able to compete this fall and will begin practicing Monday, just 12 days before the team’s first scheduled meet.

“It’s kind of shocking because with football and volleyball being such a driving factor for the conference, I was thinking if those sports get postponed, then so would ours,” Head Cross Country Coach Luke Karamitros said. “But I think it’s really noteworthy of the conference to kind of pick up the blocks a little bit. Cross-country is such a strong sport in the conference, almost on a yearly basis they have a national champion or multiple teams represent in the top five every year.”

The Eagles don’t have a complete schedule for the 2020 fall season but are eyeing competition against South Dakota School of Mines, Saturday, Sept. 5, in Rapid City, South Dakota, and plan to host a home meet Saturday, Oct. 3.

Karamitros said the Eagles, along with all schools in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, plan to localize competition to ensure safety for the athletes so that schools can host multiple teams for a conference meet at the season’s end.

“Come the end of October, maybe we can have one big competition between all us schools where if our campuses look good and everything goes according to plan, then that’s what we can do,” Karamitros said. “Obviously if that’s not the case, we are all going to have to be creative with what we’ll do.”

Initial plans for CSC’s home meet included a festival for attendees to engage and have fun with, but due to health and safety guidelines, those plans will move to 2021’s home meet, according to Karamitros.

CSC’s 2020 cross-country team features a young roster with eight total freshmen compared to three upperclassmen on the women’s squad and one on the men’s team.

“I think everyone is excited and ready, I know I’m excited and I hope it all works out like we want it to,” Madison Watson, senior of Mitchell, said. “But if it doesn’t, it’s a good training block for us having a new team that’s so young. Either way, everything will be ok with what happens this season.”

As many changes to schedules and procedures took place in the RMAC and Div. II sports over the summer, members of CSC’s cross-country team still prepared for the fall season using a workout plan assigned by Karamitros in March. However, thoughts of the season getting cancelled or postponed stayed in the minds of those on the team.

“You’re always going to have those thoughts in the back of your mind,” Emma Willadsen, senior of Eaton, Colorado, said. “But you still want to make yourself better and improve the team. Throughout the summer, I kept the mentality that we’d have a fall season so that I’m able to perform if we do.”

Members of the team also recognize their role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle during this COVID-19 pandemic.

“As student athletes during this time, we are held to a higher standard than we have been in years past, we need to make sure we are staying safe and making the best decisions we can to keep ourselves and others healthy.” Willadsen said.

With no championships scheduled in the RMAC this season, athletes can compete during their redshirt season to keep eligibility for the 2021 season.