It’s a brisk September morning at West Ottawa’s middle school campus, where I’m standing in a crowd of hundreds of people. There’s a brief hush before – CRACK! A gunshot shatters the calm before the storm. In this case, the storm is 21 high school cross-country teams barreling down the opening hill of WO’s 5K course. The spectators cheer for their teams before dispersing to other parts of the course, trying to catch the runners again as they fly to the finish. 

   Sixteen minutes later, I’m at the finish line to see the end of the race. My voice is already hoarse from cheering for friends, but I shout anyway when West Ottawa’s runners cross the finish. Michael Dummer comes in 12th, leading four other WO runners close behind, each earning 13th, 16th, 17th, and 19th place. At the end of the race, West Ottawa took second place overall, beating 19 out of  21 teams present.

   I went to that race after hearing from a friend that this was West Ottawa’s fastest men’s varsity team ever. To find out more about the team’s determination and effort, I interviewed WO Instructor Chris Knoll, the team’s coach. Upon entering his room, I was greeted by both the enthusiastic coach and his wall of Yoda paraphernalia. I had barely sat in a chair beside Knoll’s desk before he dashed to the BenQ board to show me stats from this year. “As a group, this team is the fastest in school history,” he said proudly, pulling up the times from Michigan’s best high school runners.

   This prompted a question from me: What does it mean to be a fast cross-country team? After all, several schools had runners finish before WO, but our team still placed higher than theirs did. Knoll explained that cross-country scoring is a little unusual; instead of having one runner who wins the race for their whole school, the top five runners from each school all score their place for their team. For example, a runner who finishes in fourth place scores four points, one finishing in seventh scores seven, and so on. The five scores are added, and the team with the lowest overall score wins.

   This unique scoring system has a notable impact on the race. It isn’t enough to have one strong runner who can win a race every time – you need a pack. Knoll illustrated it with a quote from NC State’s track coach, Rollie Geiger: “Cross country is like poker. You have to be holding five good cards all the time.” West Ottawa’s hand has never looked better than this year.

   Here’s a graph from OK Red’s September 9th Jamboree that visualizes the “pack effect”; it shows the time difference between a team’s first and fifth runners. West Ottawa, shown in purple, had a difference of only 23 seconds. The team with the next best difference was Hudsonville at 1:23 – almost four times as long as WO’s. As team captain Jr. Sebastian Ruiz says, “Our pack is lethal!”

   Of course, a team this fast doesn’t happen all at once. Ruiz spoke with me in detail about the years of training that led up to this season. “It’s a big season because we’ve been working for it for a long time,” he said, “we have a lot of seniors who’ve been working to get to state since they were freshmen.” The most important thing he highlighted was the team’s consistency and effort. By showing up for winter track, team lifts, and summer runs, the results happen. The most shocking thing to me was the team’s summer practices – they meet five days a week, starting the first Monday after school. “Summer is really where you are building your season,” Knoll said, emphasizing the importance of summer running for injury prevention during the fall season.

   If the training is so intense, why do students continue to participate year after year? Captain Ruiz had a particularly profound answer: “I try to buy into both the process and my teammates. It’s not just about watching yourself grow, but the other runners around you, too.” According to Ruiz, running becomes a lot more fun when you’re doing it with and for your friends. There’s less focus on how far you have to go and more easy conversation, making the time pass faster.

   In my brief investigation, I’ve come to admire WO’s cross-country team greatly. Look no further than this group of students to find an overflow of determination, dedication, and camaraderie.  The years of hard work put in by these runners are evident in their races, and it’s amazing to see. To plan to attend a future race, the full men’s varsity XC schedule can be found here. Bring a friend, bring your family, and cheer as loud as you can while West Ottawa flies!