This past Friday, the top 14 runners on the Hockaday Cross Country team competed at Money Gram Park.

According to Cross Country coach and Sports Performance Program Coordinator Laboris Bean, the purpose of this meet is to see how the Hockaday cross country team compares with other northern SPC teams before the actual SPC competition in November.

The top 10 runners from Hockaday who competed in North Zone will then compete in SPC. Bean’s expectations were simply for the runners “to go out and have a great race.”

Junior Lizzie Raff competed this past Friday. “I think overall the Hockaday team is going to get some PRs (personal records) and do really well since the course is mostly flat,” she said. The team hopes to beat Greenhill, their biggest cross country and track rival.

“If we win Northzone I think it will help a lot with team moral and we will be really spirited going in to SPC.” Raff said. “If we don’t, I still think it will be a really great meet to be able to determine where our team should be in the ranks, and motivate us during the last few weeks of practice to improve.”

Personally, Raff hopes to run around a 19:50 and to keep up with the girls from Greenhill who are running at similar times. In addition to competing, she wants to have a good time.

Raff said, “I’m really excited to have fun with the team during the our last meet before the championships since they’re like my second family.”

Overall, Hockaday placed second.

Sonya Xu – News Editor