Members of the Clarke Central High School cross country team participate in strides on the CCHS track on Sept. 20. The team is preparing for the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational on Sept. 21 in Conyers, Ga. “I’m excited to look at this course again, it’s just a lovely course. It’s a nice event. It serves a purpose, it raises awareness,” CCHS assistant cross country coach Erica Cascio said. “There’s always a lot of good sportsmanship at this race. Coaches get along, runners get along. It’s fun to have a look at the other teams.” Photo by Audrey Enghauser
On Sept. 21, the Clarke Central High School cross country team will participate in the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational in memoriam of late teen cross country runner Aubrae Gunderson.
The Clarke Central High School cross country team will compete in the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational annual 5k in memoriam of Aubrae Gunderson at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, Georgia on Sept. 21.
According to CCHS assistant cross country coach Erica Cascio, the team is participating in different workouts in preparation for the meet.
“We have several long runs each week in varying lengths, then usually one day a week we concentrate on pacing, and that’s the work that we do at the track. Then another day we do hill workouts,” Cascio said.
For CCHS junior Jace Porter-Sims, these coaching strategies will help his performance at the meet.
“Our coaches have been making us run like crap. (CCHS assistant cross country coach Lee Patterson) has been pushing me to go further, and I think that’s great, that’s awesome,” Porter-Sims said.
A graphic displaying the workout schedule for the week of Sept. 16 leading up to the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational meet. The Clarke Central High School cross country team will compete in the 5k on Sept. 21.
Unlike others of its kind, this meet has a more significant meaning in that it is a memorial race.
“Aubrae Leigh Gunderson, 15, of Covington was struck by a van and killed (in 2005) while crossing Ga. 138 on a training run with her cross country team,” Gunderson’s obituary said. “The Heritage High School sophomore nabbed a spot on her school’s varsity cross country team when she was just a freshman.”
Cascio believes that the meet and other 5k’s will help runners build stamina for the upcoming regional and state meets.
“(We are) working to get that speed and endurance (up) to have a good solid group that finishes. They don’t need to be first to win the meet, they just need to be solidly at the front,” Cascio said. Every meet you do, every time you race, every time you go to a start and finish, you’re gaining experience. The more they run, the more they develop themselves as runners.”
