Cross Country

Rockwell has loved being on the cross country team this year! He has great friends on the team and has really learned to love running. It's been a great experience for him.

 His first meet was at View Point, and it was a challenging course. Most of it was on cement and a lot of it was uphill. He did awesome and finished with a 13:39. (They run a 2-mile course.)

He took 8th overall, and 5th for the eighth grade boys! He was excited to earn a medal. :)

It was fun to race against Vincent!!

Sadly, I had to miss the second meet, but Rockwell did awesome at that one too. He finished with a 13:17. Great improvement!

The third meet was at Vista Heights, and Rock really pushed himself. 

He was determined to beat 13 minutes.

 He finished 5th overall and 5th for the 8th grade boys since all top 5 finishers were eighth graders. :)

 He was so disappointed to see his time as 13:27. It turns out all the boys were super disappointed with their times and didn't know how they all got slower times when they felt like they had a much faster pace than the previous two meets. So one of the coaches ran the course and found out it was actually 2.15 miles. He gave all the boys a formula to figure out their best estimates for 2 miles, and Rockwell's time was actually right around 12:34. That sure made him happy!!

The next meet was at Frontier.

Rockwell finished with a time of 12:41 and came in 10th for 8th grade boys. He was happy with his time!

Rock qualified for the District Championship Meet at Art Dye Park the next week. He was really pumped to race with the best of the best from the whole district. Since there were so many athletes competing, they split these races up by grades. 

I was bummed I missed catching the picture I wanted here. When Paul and I walked up to the start line, the 8th grade boys all had their arms around each other in a circle and were saying a prayer together. What studs these boys are!

The 8th grade boys ran a great race. They took 2nd place as a team!

Rockwell finished with a time of 12:14!!! He placed 21 out of 91 runners. He had an amazing finish. He pushed so hard at the end and passed a lot of boys in that last stretch. Way to go with your first season of Cross Country Rockwell!!! You did awesome!

He had fun cheering on the rest of the kids from his school. 

On Drew's birthday, the team ran to his grave and put some balloons on it. I sure appreciate that they continue to do a lot of meaningful things to remember Drew.

I'm grateful for the good times Rockwell is able to have with this team and for his coaches who make it a positive experience for these kids.