Urbana cross country season

Last season, Urbana Cross Country was one of the most dominant teams in the area, yet with the changes to this year’s team, athletes and coaches alike wonder what the outcome of this season will look like.

In the 2017-2018 season, the girls team placed seventh at state and the boys team placed tenth in sectionals, the best both teams have done in decades. Though both teams have lost vital runners, Zach Boehmke, science teacher and coach, believes this year’s team is even stronger.

”The team has more depth of talent than we have had in a long time on both sides,” Boehmke says.

In Charleston, the first race of the season, the team took home the largest amount of individual medals in recent history. “Since that point, our whole team has continued to improve as we are dropping large amounts of time from race to race,” Boehmke explains.

The team also has improved its pack running, which aids in scoring as well as placing in races.

This Tuesday is the Twin City Invitational, which is where the teams in the area race against each other.

“Last year we won the invite on the girls side and took second on the boys. Replicating those results would be great.” Boehmke says. “This is a great team filled with athletes that want to work hard. As a young team, we are a group that can be successful now and in the upcoming years.”

How the Twin City plays out may prove how the remainder if the season will go, but the cross country coach remains hopeful, as do the athletes.

Aaron Lyubansky, junior, believes that the successes will continue to happen this season, “because a change of attitude, particularly on boys varsity.”

“There is a greater desire to win, get faster, and work hard. The varsity runners care in a way that the team hasn’t seen in previous years,” Lyubansky explains.

According to Lyubansky, the team “can make it to state but it won’t be easy. It is definitely within our grasp.”

On the opposite end, Mattie Janczewski, a sophomore on the girls team acknowledges that, while the girls team will have to work even harder than last year to recreate past results, it is still within grasp.

“Workouts are more intense this year because our coaches know what we can do and want to push us to do our best,” Janczewski explains. The varsity team is slightly different this year, which “gives some other runners the opportunity to step up.”

Janczewski is hopeful that with all the hard work the team is putting in, it will pay off in the postseason. Though time will tell if this is true, for now, the team remains confident.