On your marks

The Rockets Cross Country team competed at their first meet in nearly two years on Saturday, Aug. 26.

The meet took place in Jamestown, and as the location of this year's state cross country meet, it was very well attended by both Class B and Class A schools throughout North Dakota.

For the Rockets, only the middle school team was able to compete, as those that would have raced varsity or junior varsity are two-sport athletes and therefore did not yet have the necessary number of practices under their belt to participate.

The Rockets' middle school runners were Elise Guler, Neecie Swart, Makaya Heskin, Seth Greiner and August Meier.

Head coach Joe Greiner said the experience was great for the young athletes and that they performed well, even if their places didn't exactly show it.

"All the single A schools were there," said Greiner. "So we competed against all the Fargo schools, as well as Bismarck, Grand Forks, Jamestown. So our places did not look great, but their times looked really good ... and when you looked how they did against Class B they did just fine."

Sixth grader Elise Guler led the way for the Rockets' girls, completing the three kilometer race in 16 minutes and 8 seconds, taking 91st place out of 116 female runners.

Seventh grader Neecie Swart finished in 17 minutes and 10 seconds, while Makaya Heskin finished in 21 minutes and 45 seconds, taking 100th and 115th places, respectively.

For the boys, meanwhile, seventh grader Seth Greiner finished in 124th place with a time of 15 minutes and 43 seconds. Sixth grader August Meier, meanwhile, finished in 16 minutes and 8 seconds to take 131st place. There were 155 total male runners in the middle school race.

For all five of the runners, it was their first-ever cross country meet. Greiner also noted that the Rockets' two sixth grade runners were the only sixth graders in the entire race, showcasing just how young this Rockets' team is.

Greiner said that Swart ran an "incredibly" consistent race, running virtually the same time to start the race as she was coming to the finish. And Elise Guler, he said, ran a very impressive "negative split," as her pace actually picked up as the race went on.

Greiner said that having the first meet behind them will be a big benefit for the team moving forward.

"Now that we have a meet done, it feels like we can kind of get serious about practice," he said, "because now we know where everyone is and we can hone in on what each one did really well and where each one can do a little better."

Moving forward, the Rockets' next meet will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 5 in Carrington. Conflicts with the football schedule will mean it'll once again just be the middle schoolers competing, and those middle school runners will be looking to improve on their solid start to the season.

The Carrington meet will be the closest the Rockets get to a "home game" all season, so Greiner is hoping to see plenty of support for the kids on Tuesday.

After all, everyone knows you run faster when being cheered on by family, friends and community.