On Monday, Sept. 28, the North Star girls and boys cross country team went against the top ranked schools in the state. They competed on the Kearney state course. There were 19 schools in total for both the girls and boys team. The ranked schools included Lincoln Pius X, Papio-LV South, Norfolk, Kearney, Lincoln East, and Millard North. They had two girls both from North Star who placed in the top 15 receiving medals and one boy from North Star who also placed in the top 15. Diana Lado Andrea placed 3rd and Tasneem Ali placed 8th out of 212 girls. Nate Pierce from the boys side placed 2nd with an impressive run out of 249 boys.
Diana Lado gave her thoughts on how she felt before and after her race. “I was really nervous knowing I was about to go against all those top individual girls since they’re the best in the state, but also I was excited to see where I would stand after the race.” Diana also gave her thought after she finished her race after getting 3rd overall against the best runners. “I was glad with my placing, but with my time I knew I could’ve ran harder, but still I was surprised that I got 3rd place.”
Nate Pierce also gave his thoughts on how he felt before his race. “Coming into the race I was excited to get a chance to run against some of the best runners in the state and see where I stood compared to them.” This was Nate’s thoughts after finding out he got runner up. “After the race I was thinking to myself “wow that was really fast, did I really just get 2nd?”
Overall the girls team felt content with their overall placing, because they placed right behind Lincoln East which is ranked 4th in the state. “We felt like we could’ve ran better overall, but one of our teammates Dina Lado was out because of an injury which plays a huge factor on our pack.” says Diana Lado. The North Star girls team finished 6th out of 19 schools in total. In the boys team they didn’t have the outcome that they would have liked. They did not have their best race at the Kearney meet, but they knew that not every race was going to be their best. The boys finished 8th out of 19 schools.
