Growing as a team: Pushing through a hard season

The cross country season has come to a close and the Saints can be proud of what they accomplished this season. It got off to a bumpy start, but by the end the runners hit their stride together.

“I think we did pretty well. We had a lot of injuries and illnesses throughout the season but overall I think we feel pretty good about the season,” said Erika Veltkamp.

For one thing, the Mt. Hood women were able to field enough runners to compete in just about every meet, a challenge in recent years.

Leah Rae Russell said, “It was a long season. Overall I felt like we did a pretty good job. We had an almost complete freshman team, besides Jon (Morrell-Salter, only sophomore on either the men’s or women’s team), and we still managed to hold our own at meets.”

Being nearly all freshmen, the Saints struggled a bit with team unity. But as the season progressed they grew close together.

Jared Pohl said, “I felt like we did improve a lot, knowing that we’re probably the youngest team in the conference and that if everyone stays along, next year it would be better. Especially towards the end of the season we started to act like more of a team with each other.

“We all just started to hang out more outside of practice,” Pohl said. “We started having team dinners, playing Ultimate frisbee and it didn’t seem like there was much awkwardness in the team much more.”

Pohl said his favorite moment came off of the track. “Just this last weekend at the championships being an overnight trip… our team just came together and actually hung out and we all went to Cabela’s, and I don’t think anybody had a bad time.”

For Veltkamp, the season was a personal success because she made a change in her running style. “I learned how to fix my stride so I can run more easily. While I may not be the fastest, at least running has become more relaxed and easy for me,” she explained.

She thanked head coach Jim Satterfield for the breakthrough. “I have had a poor running form for all of the years that I have been running, but he took the time to show me what I had been doing wrong and helped me practice the correct form until I got it right,” Veltkamp said.

Pohl echoed her compliments, also praising Satterfield.

“He was a very patient coach knowing we were a really young brand new team coming together and handled it pretty well,” Pohl said. He reflected on what he got from this season: “I’d just say it’s more of a year of learning to be a freshman student athlete at a college.”

It is clear the young MHCC team did a lot of growing this season, not just as runners but as a group of friends. Still, like all things in life that take up such a large portion of time, there is some relief in the season ending, the runners say.

Pohl was really starting to enjoy the season so he’s disappointed to have it end. But he also is excited to rest up before running track next spring, if he does end up staying in school through Winter Term.

Veltkamp said, “I really like cross country so I am sad that it is over, but we’ve been working really hard all season so I think we need a little break to let out bodies rest up before we jump back into training hard for track.”

It’s hard to blame these athletes for being ready for a little break after a long, hard season.

The Saints struggled with injuries but never stopped competing this season. Photo by Isaiah Teeny

Advocate Staff