Cross country is an activity that seems simple at first thought.
You run, you run your fastest. Isn’t that the whole point?
However, much more work goes into this sport than is often seen.
The girls cross country team here at Cardinal Gibbons has a long history of success. The team is led by head coach Nick Mangum who was a collegiate runner at N.C. State and later inducted into the Cardinal Gibbons Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018 for his impressive cross country career.
The program holds a record 18 state championships, and once had a span of nine state championships in a row from 2010-2018. In 2017, the Cardinal Gibbons Girls Team won NXR, or Nike Cross Regionals, and got flown out to Portland, Oregon to compete for the national championship, where they finished 16th in the nation.
More recently, the team won Nike Cross Regionals in 2021, but due to COVID were not able to travel to Oregon.
Last season started out on a high note with the girls winning the BaySix Kickoff Classic in the 9/10th grade age group. Then, in Charlotte, the team pulled out a win at the Hare and Hounds XC Invitational. The success continued as they won the NCRunners Elite XC Invitational in Kernersville and the Milestat.com XC Invitational in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
At the CAP-6 Conference Championships, the team took home a clean sweep, with a perfect score of 15. The girls had eight runners in the top 20, and moved onto regionals, where the team finished in first to qualify for the state championship meet. The girls cross country team put up a fight, but ultimately finished in 2nd place to round off a very successful season. While the team did not end up winning a state championship, success in the program is imminent.
The expectations for this year are high.
There are goals of winning the state championship and NXR (Nike Cross Regionals), where the top two teams get to compete in Portland, Oregon in a trip paid for by Nike. One special goal the team has in mind is the desire to win the CAP-6 Conference with a perfect score for the third year in a row.
Inspired by these targets, the team is working harder than ever. Morning practices are frequent, with some waking up as early as 4 a.m. to get in the workouts before school. The runners spend everyday outside working towards their goals, whether it be in the heat, the rain, or the wind. Players wake up early on the weekends to go to practice and complete their long runs for the week, which can be over 70 minutes of continuous running. Mentality is everything in this sport, and the runners on the team have to push through whatever obstacles they face.
One obstacle all runners face is pain.
You are going to hurt, but find comfort in being uncomfortable is a saying that Coach Mangum often tells the runners before workouts or races.
To push through however, it helps to have a motivator besides personal progress.
For this reason, Coach Mangum is always telling the runners to run for the girls next to them, their teammates.
The motivation on the team is not for oneself, but to run for the people standing next to them, the people who support them, and that they will succeed together. The team is a family and each individual pushes in the race to help the team succeed.
Off the track, this team spends time building bonds by playing pickleball on Wednesday nights and hanging out with each other. After morning practices, going to Chick-fil-A is a must-do and trips to Sheetz for slushies are also enjoyed.
The team holds a tradition of “pink Fridays,” in which everyone dresses in pink. It is a way to be together as a team and carry on a tradition and legacy of others before. In addition, the night before big meets, the whole team goes out to dinner. It can help to relax nerves, laugh together, and have fun.
As the runners prepare for this season, the team can be seen competing in a number of local events. The BaySix Kickoff Classic was on August 12th and displayed a number of newer runners for the team. The returning varsity athletes recently won the Knights Crossing XC Invitational in Salem, Virginia with a perfect 15 point score.
Other upcoming meets are Adidas XC Challenge on September 16th and Great American XC Festival on October 7th. Both are hosted at WakeMed Soccer Park and spectators are welcome to attend.
