Cross Country Makes it to State

by Keaton Ingle, senior

Cross country is a sport that takes extreme endurance and love for running. These are the qualities that motivated John I. Burton's Cross Country team to qualify for state finals.  plus, the entire boys team qualified as a team.

Bethany Powers, individual qualifier

The boys' team got second place at regions with 49 points, making it eligible to go to state as a team. Owen Lindsey led the boys' team when he came in third place overall with the other runners not far behind; he had placed first in district.

Burton sent one individual competitor, junior Bethany Powers, from the girls' team to state. She's made it to state before when she attended a different school, but this is the first time she's made it since being at Burton. At regional, she placed twelfth.

Boys' cross country

Making it to state is a challenge and hasn't been done in years for the J.I.B. cross country team. Most of the boys team who went to state were not even on the team last year, so they achieved an impressive accomplishment. It will be exciting to see how they improve next year since most of them are underclassmen. The recruiting has been outstanding from the second-year coach, Mr. Robert Fultz.

The state meet had the best runners in Virginia and Fultz said is an honor just to go. To be a finalist in state a runner needs to place in the top 15 out of 104 runners. Owen Lindsey placed 16th while the rest of the team was 40 places behind him. Bethany Powers got 60th place out of 100 as an individualist for the girls.

"The course was a challenging course. It even had a two foot deep river you had to run through. We will have it next year, though, since we know what to expect now, " Jonah Cochrane said.

While the team was attending state, they even managed to take a day to visit some historic sites around Washington, D.C., making it a fun and educational trip.