FSHS cross country workouts gaining steam

photo by: Nick Krug

Free State runners Abby Zenger, left, and Taylor Mosher head west along Ninth Street as the rain comes down on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, during the FSHS cross country team's daily run.

When Free State High cross country coach Steve Heffernan created an offseason running program several years ago, he was thrilled when five or six runners would show up each day.

Since the start, the offseason running program has only grown. More than 40 runners were stretching outside of the Hillcrest Shopping Center on Monday, and the Firebirds have peaked with more than 50 runners on some days.

“To see that many kids who are willing to come out, get up in the morning and go for a run with each other, it’s a neat deal absolutely,” Heffernan said. “We always get a little bit caught up in how well we want to do at state and those things, but I’d feel really bad if we were still stuck at five or six kids training in the summer.”

The Firebirds, who run at 7 a.m. to avoid the heat, went down 19th street Monday, but have their own training schedules based on their experience. Some runners stop at two miles and other elite runners are done after six miles.

One of the bonuses of the summer workouts is the ability to help runners slowly increase their mileage, which helps prevents injuries.

“I’d say it’s definitely very helpful. It gets you ready for the season,” senior Eli Jost said. “We don’t do a lot of speed work, but we just go out and run and gradually up the distance with time.”

Beyond the daily running, there’s extra excitement heading into the upcoming season. Free State’s girls cross country team, which tied for first place at state last season before falling to second on a tiebreaker, is expected to be one of the favorites to win a Class 6A state championship.

The Firebirds bring back five of their top runners: seniors Emily Venters, Kiran Cordes and Abby Zenger, and sophomores Julia Larkin and Emma Hertig. All of them finished inside of the top 45 at last year’s state meet.

“It’s pretty neat to think about,” Cordes said of the high expectations, “but I just want to see us try the best we can. Go out and have fun.”

Heffernan said he’s excited to see the progress of Larkin and Hertig, who didn’t have much offseason training last year but gradually improved throughout the season.

“I don’t think we had a really strong offseason group run together last year,” Heffernan said. “I’m already seeing more of that this year. To be honest, some of the kids are so brand new to running they didn’t know what it all meant. Now we’ve had kind of a taste of it.”

Along with the girls’ team, there is plenty of potential for the FSHS boys runners. The Firebirds lost their top two runners from last season, but will be led by juniors Avant Edwards and Jared Hicks, and sophomore Grant Alexander Holmes.

The Firebirds will likely be without a dominant runner who wins most meets, which they’ve had for the past two years, but a strong freshmen class will help make up for the difference.

“There’s as much talent in the full group as we’ve had in a long time,” Heffernan said. “If they just want to come in and put the work in together, they are going to have fun. This year it’ll be a little bit different because they will all be fairly young. But when they are juniors and seniors, it’s going to be exciting.”

With big expectations and strong potential, the Firebirds are excited to see what they can accomplish during the upcoming season.

But during the summer workouts, the Firebirds are just happy to continue along at their own pace.

“I’m not one of the fastest runners or anything, but I enjoy it,” Jost said. “It’s a lot of fun because cross country you get a real community feel. Everybody is supporting everyone else, so it’s nice.”