Moving on and moving up

The 2019 cross country season has more meaning for head coach Justin Rebitch, as he has coached many runners on this team throughout their high school career. 

“This year’s kind of a little bit extra special for me, because I’ve seen some of those students that are seniors now start with me when they were freshmen. So I’ve been able to watch them grow not only as people and students and young men and women, but also as cross country runners,” said Rebitch.

Many returning seniors make up strong varsity teams for the boys and girls. Key runners like junior Josh Williams are looking to break their own records and get some wins this season. 

“The first meet I ran an 18:50. And I placed 56 out of 200 people. So for myself, I just really want to get up to the top twenty,” Williams said.

On the boys varsity team, the top six runners are junior Josh Williams, junior Anthony Manzione, senior Saejin Mallon, senior Cam Bush, senior Tristan Lankford, with the last spot shared by senior Jordan Dulcio and junior Pace Barkdoll.

Besides a strong veteran starting lineup, the Lady Jags have fresh runners from this year’s freshman and sophomore class. Sophomore Corinne Register and Freshman Obba Blake hope to fill the shoes of this year’s senior heavy lineup. 

“The girls are pushing themselves. The guys as well. They’re using each other for help in running. That’s what I feel a great team consists of togetherness from one another using each other to uplift everyone, and also pushing yourself to the best of your ability,” said senior Weenta James.

Another major change to the Cedar team is Coach Kay, the new assistant coach straight out of Emmanuel College’s cross country program. 

“He gives us new, harder, and stronger workouts than we did last year for sure. The workouts are also made specific to each runner. He also always brings a good attitude to the team,” Bush said.

Bush looks to improve his 2018 season best time of 17:16 placing him 16th in the region championship. For the girls team, James placed 6th in the region with a time of 20:51 seconds last year.