Cross country season was always my favorite season in high school and college. In high school, while in St. Louis, we raced on the Saint Louis University High School home course in Forest Park. I ran for DeSmet and we wanted to crush the SLUSH, as we called them.
Leonard Komen, Campaccio XC 2009,
photo by PhotoRun.net
When my family moved to California, I ran for Bellarmine Prep, and we raced at Crystal Springs four to five times during the season. The Belmont 2.9 mile course was tough. I remember watching Mitch Kingery run 14:35 on the course: he was god like to us.
In college, we had a course at Coyote-Hellyer Park, the 5.8 mile course, two laps, was fun and fast, with one tough hill near the end. My reward for winning my first meet as coach and athlete, (27-29, SC vs Loyola Marymount) was being thrown in the pond. Enjoyed that very much!
Here are the first week of Coaches Polls for Division 1, 2, 3 for NCAA Cross Country.