The CPM girls cross country team had a phenomenal season, beating over eight consecutive schools leading up to the finals. To win a meet, you have to have the lowest amount of points. The top five runners’ places are added up to equal a score, the team with the lowest wins. For example, if your top five runners finish in third, fourth, seventh, ninth, and tenth your score would be 33 points. Maya Bergan, Alison Milstead, Audrey Rothmier, and Talia Stathoulis all did extremely well this past season and contributed greatly to the success of the girls cross country team.

Here’s what Maya Bergan had to say about the girl’s cross country team’s success. “I think the season was great! It was a really great community and everyone was super nice and fun.” Maya was one of the top five finishers throughout the season. “My favorite moments were practices in general. I loved practices because we got to run with our friends and we got a lot of time to bond and hang out and talk aside from just running together.” The girls ran in six meets, each time competing against multiple other schools. “My favorite meet was districts because it was fun to race against all of my friends from the other schools and I feel like I did my best in that meet… The hardest meet for me was the championships because it was such a big pack to run in and we hadn’t trained to run 2 miles straight before.” The first five meets were all roughly 1.5 miles in distance. But the sixth meet, the final at Shoreline Stadium, was two miles long which was especially challenging this year for all competitors as the smoke canceled all training one week prior to the race.

Alison Milstead was a seventh grade runner that did really well this past season. “My favorite thing about the season was just being on a team and us as a team supporting each other through victories, injury’s, and just team spirit and having each other’s backs for a little bit of the school year. I definitely loved our team’s kindness to each other and our two coaches who definitely trained us hard, learned how to take care of ourselves, how to run well and especially run smart!” The team had a really great bond this past season and worked together really well. “My favorite moment during the season was the practices because everyday we would go out onto the track, even when it was freezing and we would be all ready and hyped up to run for practice. We would also go and stretch, and stretching was really fun because we would make it funny or enjoyable to stretch, another thing about having practice as my favorite thing in the season is coach coming to practice everyday and teaching us something new that can help running, getting your body in better shape, eating well, and how running can make you a better person…” Although districts was a favorite meet throughout the season it was also one of the most challenging. “The meet that was the hardest was actually districts because there were so many girls and when you don’t run fast in the beginning, it’s hard to catch up to the front of the pack of 7th grade girls. Also the track was just not enjoyable because of its narrow paths and a bunch of different lane types like gravel then grass than dirt etc…” The first meet was Alison’s favorite. “My favorite meet was Harbour Point…This was my favorite course because the path and trail was very relaxing and also it was mostly flat…”

This is what Audrey Rothmier, a returning runner, thought about this year’s girls cross country season. “I thought the season was fun and everybody put in a lot of hard work and effort. It was fun to see how we all bonded and got to know new people that we probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.” Audrey Rothmier was one of the team captains and was one of the consecutive top five finishers for the CPM girls. “Meets were my favorite moments throughout the season because it was fun to see the excitement everyone had, especially when face paint was involved, as well as my teammates supporting one another and getting the results they worked for.” Everyone has their best races and their hardest races, here’s what Audrey thought was her hardest meet and her favorite meet. “My favorite meet was districts because multiple people, including me, knew friends on the other teams and were able to race against people they knew, which created a fun atmosphere for the runners and family members/friends watching… The Eisenhower and Einstein meet was the hardest for me, but even when I wasn’t on my game that day my teammates cheered me on and were encouraging. It was really exciting to see our team fight for each other and stay strong, and the girls even brought home another win.” Even though you don’t always do your personal best it is important to know that you gave everything you had, that day.

This is what Talia Stathoulis thought about the season. “I think the season went great, sadly it was my last CPM cross-country season but I loved it. The coaches were great, the team was lots of fun, and the girls did an amazing job.” Talia was one of the team captains and was consistently in the top five runners for CPM. “My favorite moment during the season was either at districts when I got a fifth place out of 4 schools or when we had our first meet and really bonded over it.” In districts Talia was the first CPM girl to finish the race. The last meet before districts was especially hard with really smoky weather. “I think the hardest meet for me was the Voyager and Olympic View meet because of how smoky it was, also I hadn’t been in a meet for awhile due to an injury.” Talia also enjoyed districts like many other runners, “My favorite meet was most definitely Districts at CPM because I had been waiting for it all season and it is, in my opinion, the most fun considering if you get top ten you get ribbons, and also it’s a great team experience.”

The girls cross country team was very successful this year in many different ways. From building new friendships, to competing as a team everyone worked really hard and improved immensely over the course of the season.

Sources

Cross Country Runners:

Maya Bergan  – Interviewed on 11/17/22

Alison Milstead – Interviewed on 11/21/22

Audrey Rothmier – Interviewed on 11/17/22

Talia Stathoulis – Interviewed on 11/21/22