What the Sedona Red Rock High School varsity cross-country team lacks in numbers, it makes up for with grit and passion.
“We got an athletic team, and I want to show the people we’re running against that we mean business this year,” Head Coach Cody McKesson said. “So I’ve been really pushing the kids, raising the bar.”
McKesson said that his biggest struggle with a smaller team is keeping everyone motivated.
“I just need to grow the programs … so everyone has someone to run with and someone to push with,” McKesson said. “Because even if they’re on team, competition breeds excellence. If you have someone on your team pushing you, you will get stronger, just naturally.”
This is the first year the Scorpions have a middle school cross-country team, and McKesson hopes its introduction will help the program grow.
“I think they’re going to be an asset to get their friends to join the program and have a full team within a year or two, hopefully,” McKesson said.
Junior Aubrie Doyle has been running for the varsity cross-country team since her freshman year. Although she did not qualify for state that year, she qualified individually her sophomore year, and plans to do the same this year.
“I want to get a higher [place in state this year], not too sure about what time [I want] but definitely want to place higher,” Doyle said.
Doyle said her goal for this season is to cut her time drastically. Her fastest time last year was 22 minutes and 50 seconds in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s 5-kilometer or 3.1-mile course, and she hopes to reduce that to 21 minutes by the time she has to qualify for state finals.
“Aubrie made state last year, was definitely the best on the team,” junior Chokyi Carstens said. “She works really hard, probably harder than anyone else.”
Doyle said that although being competitive and placing well in state is a priority for her, team bonding is equally important, as it brings her joy and is one of the things she loves most about cross-country.
Carstens started running for the Scorpions during his sophomore year. Although he just missed out on qualifying for state last year, he is working to make sure that does not happen again. He said his biggest goals are to make state and cut his time. His fastest time last year was 20 minutes and 23 seconds, which he hopes to get down to around 18 minutes before state qualifiers.
Carstens said that while making it to state is important, he added that cheering on his teammates and bonding with the team is one of the best things about cross country. “It’s the time you spend with the people in between the actual race that is the most fun,” Carstens said.
Carsten said the biggest problem with the crosscountry program last year was lack of participation, which limited the number of fun events the team could do — such as a watermelon relay race, now a possibility again. He also hopes the middle school team will improve participation. While McKesson has not yet appointed a middle school captain, Carstens speculated that senior Nic McAtee would be a likely candidate.
“Unofficially, Nic [McAtee] is kind of our team captain when he’s here, because he’s the only senior, and then Aubrie the team captain the rest of the time,” Carstens said. This is McAtee’s first year on cross-country after playing varsity baseball and track and field. His outdoor interests also include mountain biking, backpacking and off-roading.
“Over the years [I] have developed to love running. It’s a way to find just peace and you find yourself pushing further every day, and you grow mentally and physically,” McAtee said.
McAtee said his goals for the season are to work hard and get faster while enjoying the scenery.
“Being out in nature and being able to enjoy the beauty that God’s created out here is the best,” McAtee said. “My goal is just to stick with it and try to see where it can get me. Obviously, the goal is always to win, but my goal is to just have new experiences.”
McAtee is very involved with his church and spent two months of his summer break volunteering at a Baptist church in South Carolina. He is working to get his CNA phlebotomy license to go to nursing school after high school graduation. McAtee said he will strive to run as much as time allows during college.
“It’s a very unique sport in that these athletes are out there out of their own grit and hard work competing,” McKesson said. “It’s not about your form when you’re shooting a three-pointer, it’s not about how strong you are to tackle someone, it’s how hard you work so you’ll go as far as you push yourself.”
The first cross-country meet of the season took place at Buffalo Park in Flagstaff on Saturday, Aug. 31, starting at 8 a.m.
