The Lincoln-Way West girls Cross Country team is absolutely loaded with seniors.
“We’re looking forward to a great season,” said Lincoln-Way West coach Matt Bowden, whose team is looking to improve its placement at both regionals and sectionals. “We have a really excellent core of seniors on varsity. So we’re looking to improve on some of last year’s finish. We’ve we’ve got a great group of seniors. I think all of them have leadership potential. So they had to pick two to be up here with me today.”
The improvement will be made easier because of all the extra work the girls put in during the summer will help with higher-intensity training.
The seniors had led the way in that in terms of attendance at our summer camps, making sure that they’re getting at least 3 to 4 miles in every day,” said Bowden, who has helped lead seven teams to the IHSA championsgips. “And I think that building that foundation will really pay off. What we’re doing is building that foundation first and then starting to add a little higher intensity workouts”
Higher intensity workouts like running hills at Delaware Park in Lockport.
“Well, what’s the most they’ve ever had us do? Ten, 12?” asked senior Makenna Zitkus. “There’s a little Snake Hill. It’s about 200m long. And we’ll run up it. And then we kind of, like, jog down,”
And then what do we do, run up again? So they have things like that. Sally, it’s designed so that when we’re on a course, we don’t have to run up a hill once. Hey, I don’t have to do this nine more times. This is a piece of cake. Hopefully.
The Warriors will also benefit from the return of Chloe Miller, who returns from a hip injury.
In the end, it’s all about improvement.
“As I tell them, it doesn’t matter whether you’re starting out at ten minute pace,” said Bowden, who has been coaching for two decades. “So 30 minutes or three miles or nine minute pace or three miles an hour, you can get better.
