As Elise Reina crosses the finish line, an equally as glorious smile rushes across her face to complement her 2014 state cross-country championship title.
Saturday, Nov. 8, the Cross Country team competed in the state race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. Oaklawn Park is originally the home of many horse races, so teams from all over Arkansas came to run inside of a horse track for their most sought after race of the school year. A typical cross country race is a 5k, which means that they run for 3.1 miles.
The two reigning conference champions, juniors TJ Sugg and Elise Reina, both had amazing performances at their previous race, but were looking to further their successes at the state meet.
This type of victory would not come easily though. Both the girls and boys divisions had pressure from extremely competitive runners from across the state. Remaining humble appeared crucial going into such an important race.
“For the individual title, one guy had run a 15:29 at Chile Pepper, but he hadn’t been running well leading up to state. So, I don’t want to sound cocky, but I was thinking that if all went well and I ran like I knew I was capable of, that I would probably win,” says Sugg
“Coming into any race you shouldn’t expect to win. There was a girl from Cabot who ran the same time as me in conference. She’s been injured a lot of the year, but she was the only person I was worried about,” said Reina.
Although going into the race Reina believed that it was a girl from Cabot that was going to give her the most competition, a sophomore from Bentonville named Katie Andrews was second to Reina at the state race.
Sugg and Reina wrapped up the day bringing in two overall first place medals and being named the number one cross country runners in the state of Arkansas. Sugg’s time was 15:17, while Reina’s was 19:11.
“During the race it is so crucial to think only positive thoughts. One negative thought will lead to another and can make you completely go down mentally. I tell myself if I run faster I’ll get done quicker,” said Reina.
“When I’m running I usually think about if/when I’ll try to them if I am behind someone. But if I’m in the lead I’ll just be focusing on the race and maintaining my pace,” says Sugg.
The cross country teams lucked out weather-wise. Rough weather can affect the race that is run and slightly sway the outcomes.
“The weather was actually perfect. It was like 60 degrees out with a bit of wind. If anything affects me the most it’s wind. Track season is super windy, which is the only thing I dislike about track. Towards the end of cross country season it is usually perfect weather,” said Reina.
Reina proceeded to join the rest of her travel soccer team in their state tournament for the remainder of the weekend. She is part of the Comets ‘98 girls team and ended up helping her team achieve another state victory. Reina had quite the weekend winning not just one, but two state titles.
“On top of competing in Hot Springs, I had to drive straight to Little Rock after, which is where I played in a state tournament with my club teammates,where we also took home first place medals. It felt great to turn around from one state championship to the next all in 24 hours,” said Reina.