By Connor Mullins

            The AHS Cross Country varsity boys achieved a successful season as they won District 3-6A at their meet on October 15th and qualified for regionals at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock on October 28.

            “Great overall season,” varsity boys coach Lanny Prentice said. “We lost a lot last year with graduation and some runners not returning to the team this season.”

The varsity boys lost a lot of good runners last year, but they managed to recuperate and recover this year.
            “We did win district,” Prentice said. “I was not expecting us to and I really thought realistically at the start of the season that we were sitting in the one to two range. We did a lot better than anticipated. Once the district meet came around, the guys ran extremely well and it came down to the tie break of the 6th runner to hand us the district crown.”

Prior to the start of the season coach Prentice and varsity girls coach Rosemary Martin  taught their groups a new running technique that played a big role in their success.

“Coach Martin and I both spoke with one of our former runners, Lesley Filorio, who’s now running for Dallas Baptist and one of the things she mentioned that they worked a lot on is wolfpack running,” Prentice said. “I had my seven varsity runners and I had about three to four junior varsity runners that I put in a pack and when we were running they had to stay together no matter what it took.”

Coach Prentice plans to continue doing this technique in the future to further improve his teams success. Prentice’s top runner Daniel Bizima, senior, ran his best time at regionals, however the Eagles finished outside the top half at regionals.

“I feel like I did great,” Bizima said. “I ran my best time at regionals which was my goal.”

Prentice has no regrets regarding this past season.

“I think the training program that we put together at the beginning of the summer coupled with the great group of kids that we deal with. They want the program to be more successful than I do because they’re out there actively recruiting their friends to join us,” Prentice said. “The funny thing about it is that some of those kids that came out and ran for us this year for the first time on the last day of the season say, ‘I wish I had run every year.’ They really enjoy the family atmosphere they’ve put together.”