Fair Grove High School Cross Country has begun their season competing at many meets including Fellows Lake (hosted by Strafford), SWCCA (hosted by Bolivar), Willow Springs, Missouri Southern Stampede (hosted by Joplin), Hermitage, and Fair Grove.
Fair Grove’s High School and Middle School Cross Country coach, Jalen Supancic said, “Our team goals for the season for both the boys and girls is to finish in the top 4 in our district…Our girls program has not qualified a team for state since 2012, and the boys program has never had a team qualify to compete at the state competition, so our kiddos have their eyes set on making school history.”
With the goal of making school history, the team has been practicing since the summer. Supancic commented on how his team has been planning to try to win a state title, “We are training harder this season to compete in big meets and to compete in our new and very competitive MLC championship. We are attending larger meets and working to compete with bigger teams and schools so that we can continue to improve ourselves and achieve our goals.”
Nolan Geitz (12) is the captain of the boy cross country team. He said, “My role is the leader of all of the guys on the team. Just making sure everyone is doing okay, and where they are supposed to be. It can be hard for Coach Sup to be the head of over 40 kids so we need other leaders on the team.”
Geitz also mentioned the goal of making it to state this year and adding that Fair Grove has not ever had a Cross Country Boys team go to state. He mentioned his own personal goal, “Some goals for myself this season are making it to state, and also just leaving a mark on the Fair Grove Cross Country program, so that in future years everyone still is hard-working and is a good all-around person.”
Geitz added how he plans to achieve his goals. He said, “It starts by showing up every day to practice and giving it all you have for that day. There are days where we don’t feel like running because of something going on in our lives, but running is an outlet we can use to calm our minds and distract ourselves from whatever is going on.”
Audrey Lemon (11) is the captain of the girl’s cross country team. She further added what her job entails, “It’s my job to make sure everyone has fun and tries their best!”
Lemon also shared the team goals when she said how they wanted both the girl’s and boy’s team to make it to state. She also mentioned her own goals for the fall season, “My personal goals this season are to stay positive and to try my very best at everything I do.” She added how she plans on achieving those goals, “I plan to take it one day at a time. Cross country is a mental sport and it is a lot of work so you just have to keep your head up and stay positive and you’ll have a lot of fun! My favorite part about it is hanging out with my friends during practice.”
Supancic mentioned more in depth how he is training his team to try to reach the team goal and their own personal goals. “We have focused our efforts on improving our running technique and have been working on competing each and every day. Our competitive meet schedule allows us to continually challenge ourselves and test our growth against some of the best teams in the state.”
With the goals this year, Supancic mentioned how the teams did last year. He said, “Our boys and girls cross country teams both competed hard and finished the season off well last year. Our girls finished 5th and the boys finished 7th in districts last year. The top 4 teams qualify to compete at the state meet from each district.
Supancic also mentioned, ¨We did have 4 individuals who qualified to run at the state meet last year (Katrina Cantwell, Lyla Bell, Luke Buescher, and Nolen Geitz). These runners had to finish in the top 30 places at districts to move on. Katrina also finished as an All-State runner last year, finishing in 7th place at the state meet.”
The Fair Grove High School Cross Country’s next meet is October 10th, 2024 at Buffalo High School.
