Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Rise and Shine

The Wildcat XC team practices every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6:30am, long before your typical Linfield student crawls out of bed for class. “We go early for a lot of reasons,” stated associate head coach Greg Mitchell. “First, we run into hot weather at the tail end of August and early September, so that’s a pretty practical reason. Next, there are no class conflicts at 6:30 in the morning. Team is very important here at Linfield so we want everybody there working together during hard efforts. There is no sense in having a roster full of good athletes if they can’t workout together – pushing and pulling each other closer to greatness. Finally, being dedicated and disciplined enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour so that you can perform well at practice helps shape a runner into an athlete who is tough to beat on race day.”

The men's team pushes the pace at the practice fields.

One of the many locations that the team is able to run is the Linfield College practice fields. The well maintained grass of the football, soccer and lacrosse practice fields is perfect for loops of many varying distances. “The practice field workouts are my favorite,” stated junior Calvin Howell. “Throwing on the spikes and hammering for an hour is always sweet!”

The Lady 'Cats crank out a workout on the practice fields as associate head coach Greg Mitchell looks on.