By Sam Goodykoontz
As the fall sports season wraped up, both swim and cross country continued to thrive. Many people in both sports made it to state. In cross country, those who made it to state were freshman Zack McIntyre and sophomores Cienna Jaime, Kylie Klassen, and Sama Allam. Those who made it to state in swim were freshmen Gracie Smaw and Gabriel Huerta-McWhirter, sophomore Noah Frazier, juniors Josh Hudson and Ehsa Murray, and seniors Nick Hudson and Josh Cisneros-Kinney.
When asked for her expectations and opinions on the state meet, cross country runner Sama Allam responded, “I wasn’t really expecting to make it to state. I had kind of resigned myself to getting close, but not quite qualifying. I barely made it, but I’m glad. However I was not shocked that I made state, since I just go out there to run the race as best as I can. My coaches were really supportive and pushed me to run a little harder, which is one of the big reasons why I was able to qualify for the state meet.” Sama placed 140th out of 150 runners while being injured.
When cross country runner Kylie Klassen was asked about her expectations and opinions on the state meet, she responded “It was my goal to make state at the beginning of the season. And so all of my training since the summer has been focused on qualifying for state. While a little surprised, I was not shocked about qualifying for state because I’ve been training, but I was not expecting to make it into state either. I was just out there trying to run as best as I can and leave everything I have out on the course, and if I happened to make state, that would be great. I feel that I am going to do very well at the state meet. I have never been so it is going to be a year to experience state individually; and then as our team improves, we go as a team next year.” Kylie Klassen placed 79th out of 150 runners.
When swimmer Noah Frazier was asked about his expectations and opinions for the State Championship, he responded, “I expected to make state. I worked hard over the season and I watched the relay team’s time drop as we got closer to state. I knew we had a good chance at making state with all our improved times. However, it was not a guarantee that we would get to state, so it was exciting to see it happen. I was both nervous and excited. I was really nervous when I first got there and the meet seemed intimidating, but I relaxed more as the meet got under way and I tried to swim just like at any other meet. I was very happy with how the meet went. I met the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the season and swam times that I was satisfied with. I would call it a successful end to the season for me, with visible improvement.” In the State Championship for swim, Josh Cisneros-Kinney took 8th place in the 100 breaststroke, and Nick Hudson took 9th place for the 100 butterfly.