Interviews with Captains Riley Burns ‘18 and Nick Toth ‘18
By Jessica Garcia
The Canterbury boy’s cross country team was led by captains Nick Toth ‘18 and Riley Burns’18.
“We had a few goals going into this season,” Riley said. “We had few runners during pre- season, but then a boom when school started. So we set a goal to improve overall through each practice and each meet.”
“We met this goal because every runner set a new personal best through the course of the season.” Nick added. “Being a rather young team, our only real goal was to improve and to grow our team.
“Of course we wanted to win, but the real goal of the season was more long term: to build a cross-country legacy. By the end of the season we had developed many non-runners into key runners for the team. Most of our core runners will return next year, so we hope to have a really strong season then.”
The typical cross country practice varied from day to day. The boys had a weekly schedule with a different workout every day.
“Monday was always a long run day usually consisting of 5-9 miles,” said Riley. “Tuesday and Thursday would be recovery days with lower milage. Wednesday would always be a workout, whether it was intervals or hills. Friday would be a pre-race to prepare for the race on Saturday.”
The team had routines for preparing for meets as well. “The day before meets were easy days, to get our legs ready for the race. However, before New England’s, we spent the entire week focusing on technique, not mileage.” said Riley.
“I feel like we didn’t truly prepare like other teams would. We were unique because we all could be fooling around before a race, but once we got to the line, we were ready to race.”
Riley recapped the overall success of the season by saying, “We were unable to get victories in the larger meets, but we did have Greg McKenna win a race, and every runner improved their records. So that being said, it was a successful season in our eyes.”
Nick agreed. “In my opinion, the season went quite well. We improved greatly from the beginning, and even won some races. At New England’s, we ran eleven strong runners, and nine of those runners will be returning next season. This season we built a great foundation for the years to come.”
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