The small community of Jamestown made a new addition to its slate of high school athletics this fall -- cross country.
The first-ever head coach of Eagles cross country is Makayla Howard. Howard was a cross country runner herself during her high school days and wanted to add a similar program at Jamestown.
"I ran cross country and track and field as a high-schooler myself. I went to state a few times. So it was just something that I've been passionate about. It's always something that I wanted to coach," Howard said. "I just thought that I might as well propose it and see how it goes. And after it got approved, I decided to go for it and I think we did very well this season."
The Eagles cross country team might have started off small in numbers, but they were strong in endurance. The only two runners the Eagles had in their first season were juniors James Scheperle and Carter Monroe. Both runners had experience with running, as they both compete on the Eagles' track and field team. The pair soon learned that while cross country and track and field may be cut from a similar cloth, they are much more different than they might have imagined.
"It's insanely different," Scheperle said. "In cross country, the distance workouts and hill climbing are just insane. I thought it was way more difficult. I'm not bashing track and field when I say this, but it's just the workouts were so different."
Monroe agreed -- it's practically a different sport, he said. And training lent itself more toward preparing overall for the whole race, not just one aspect of running.
Howard said she had to be creative in how she designed daily workouts for her runners. This is because Jamestown does not have it's own track, which meant Scheperle and Monroe had to always practice for meets on steep and sometimes challenging terrain.
But cross country runners not only have to deal with running conditions -- they also need to know how to properly utilize their bodies and their minds to run long distances, Howard said.
"We have to actually really work on having perfect running form. Because you're running 3.1 miles in high school," Howard said. "We need to make sure that we're moving our arms correctly, moving our legs correctly and driving your knees correctly. We also have to train for hills, because there's hills at every single meet and they're always different."
The Eagles took the advice for their coach to heart and worked all season to make a name for themselves and announce the arrival of Jamestown's new cross country team. The Eagles competed at eight meets during the regular season. Two of those meets were in Linn, which Monroe and Scheperle agreed was the toughest course they competed on all season.
"The toughest course I ever ran was at Binder Park (at Calvary Lutheran). I think the most difficult aspect of the course was that the footing of the course was very hard," Scheperle said. "I had gotten new shoes and spikes before then and I think that's what made it difficult for me."
One of those two meets at Linn was the Class 1 District 3 meet Saturday, Oct. 30. In order to qualify for the state meet in Columbia, a runner had to finish in the top 30 at their respective district meet. Both Monroe and Scheperle qualified for districts. Scheperle finished 63rd with a time of 22:24, but Monroe qualified for state with a 13th place finish with a time of 19:06. In only their first season as a program, Jamestown cross country would be represented at the Class 1 state meet.
Although a hip injury prevented Monroe from finishing on the all-state team in Columbia, Jamestown cross country couldn't have asked for a better start to their program's history. When it was all said and done, Monroe said he felt mixed emotions about his finish at state but was grateful to be the first to represent the Jamestown Eagles in cross country.
"I felt a mix of emotions at the end of it. Just because of how I did, and just because if people didn't know the story, they would just look at the standings and think it wouldn't seem like such a great achievement," Monroe said. "But overall, I was happy just to be there."
Next fall, Jamestown cross country will not only look to get back to state, but also build a bigger team and set bigger goals for themselves.