On the morning of Saturday, October 7th, cross country competed in the Windjammer invitational at Englewood High School. The boys’ team fought hard, with star runners sophomore Hank Chojnacki and senior Kaden Pullar winning 2nd and 5th place respectively. The girls’ team also had a good showing, with sophomore Natalie Lueker leading the squad.
The boys’ race was intense, with many LHS runners chasing down opponents in the final stretch. For Chojnacki, this final push at the end made all of the difference in achieving his target time for the race.
“My first goal for today was to not get a side cramp while I ran because I had been struggling with that and it had been killing my races, and my second goal was to break 17 minutes in the 5K, and I accomplished both of those goals,” said Chojnacki.
Despite this impressive meet, the team’s hopes for the future remain high. Pullar shares what he’s looking forward to and hoping to accomplish during the rest of the season.
“Continuing to improve with my team and hopefully placing at state, which is the end goal,” said Pullar.
On the girls’ side, Natalie Lueker led the team with a strong race. Lueker expresses her happiness with the result of the race.
“I really thought I did very well in the first part, I was really in it in the first lap. As people passed me, it gave me more motivation to keep going. Even though I didn’t end up in the top 5, I still am happy with my race because I was motivated the entire time.”
“My coach said I can go to NXR which is the regionals held by Nike in Arizona if I got a 22:30, so that was my main goal and I beat that a lot which I was really happy about.”
The team is full of talented runners, indicating a very promising future. Great job cross country!
