After months of dedication, hard work, and good habits, the MV Rams Cross-Country teams enter their postseason strong and confident. 

During their time spent getting to the postseason, they had to put in plenty of work to get there. 

Robert Grider, Lady Rams’ coach, added, “Every day, being consistent. Putting in just enough work to where we’re not over-training them but they’re still improving each day.

Training hard consistently and constantly can lead to many injuries, aches, and pains but these runners know how to deal with them.

Jayden Jones 27’ explained how injuries have affected his teammates throughout this season, “At the beginning of the season we had a lot of pains with ankles and hips, that demotivated us as a team.”

With so many items getting the Rams to be less and less motivated, they have to find various ways to keep their minds in the right headspace.

Joel Hayes 26’ said that he changed his eating habits and has been going to bed earlier in the day to keep his body feeling light and his mind fresh.

Before the Rams had changed their bad habits for the better they were worried about the rest of their season after the first meet not going well.

“I thought I would be about a minute slower after seeing how the Salem Invite went, but when Granite City’s invite rolled around I broke my barrier and ran a sub 16:30,” said Jones.

Although they found the start to be difficult their worries did not meet their struggles.

Coach Grider said his worries were sickness and pains but later he explained, that his true struggles were staying positive through downfalls or shortcomings and they were able to get through the aches and pains.

The Rams made their annual trip four hours upstate to compete on Illinois’ most famous course: Detwiler Park.

Over halfway through their season at this point, the runners have made many memories and Kennedy Bax mentioned “My favorite moment so far was the trip to Peoria.”

With so many memories already made it’s time for the season to start wrapping up.

Both the Rams and Lady Rams win the “South 7” conference meet, hoping to finish the rest of their season strong.

  Hoping this season ends well won’t be the end of their high school careers.

The MV Runnin’ Rams have a promising track season with plenty of hard work and training left to do.

The men’s Cross Country team includes no seniors and the current team members will be back next year more hungry than when they’ll end it.