The South High cross-country team recently attended the twenty-ninth annual Roy Griak Meet at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. The race was held on September twenty-seventh, it consisted of “six college races, and four high school races,” senior Tristan Evans-Fargione explained. The races were five kilometers for high schools. The colleges were eight-thousand kilometers for men, six-thousand kilometers for women. For the South High girls cross-country team this race was one-thousand kilometers longer than their usual four-thousand kilometer races. The race was difficult for the girls cross country team “it was very hilly,” junior Kendra Roedl said.

The Roy Griak race is the biggest race in the nation, “there a lot of spectators,” Evans-Fargione added. Senior Kyle Everetts thought “it felt more serious,” compared to the meets the cross-country team has had this year so far. The Roy Griak didn’t just have spectators, coaches, and teams. Scouts were there looking at the runners, watching how good they were. Potential college runners in high school were being watched by scouts.

There are two different races in cross country: single and team. In the single race they track your time and the goal is to get the lowest time, in team races, “They put a chip your shoe and the race is recorded,” Evans Fargione explained in detail. “After the team race, they take the top seven runners and add up their times,” Roedl explained. The team with the lowest time wins.  The Roy Griak did both types of races. South High didn’t win, but the South High racers made very good time in all the races they participated in.

Some runners were hoping the scouts weren’t paying attention to them. “I was hoping they [the scouts] didn’t notice me. But there were a lot of runners they should’ve paid attention to. There were a lot of good underclassmen and freshman who should be noticed,”  Roedl explained.