Two Eastern Iowa Students Break A Course Record In The Same Event
*The featured photo is neither student in this story*
If you're a major league baseball fan there's been a lot in the news about two future Hall of Fame ball players chasing down records and some major home run milestones. Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees tied Babe Ruth for second highest home run mark in one season for the American League and Albert Pujols of the St Louis Cardinals isn't chasing a record exactly but he's two home runs away from joining one of the most exclusive clubs in MLB history. He needs 2 more home runs to join the 700 clubs.
I brought up records being in the news because two Eastern Iowa high school students both just broke a course record at the Seminole Valley cross-country course. The Kennedy invite featured Jedediah Osgood, running for Marion, and Miles Wilson, running for Kennedy. In the same race, both of them accomplished something not many people have.
Normal high school cross-country races are 5000 meters or 3.1 miles long. It would be the same as running a 5K. A lot of other sports use running as a punishment for doing something wrong or poor play on the field. My least favorite phrase when I was playing sports in high school was "we're going to do conditioning today." Cross-country runners do other athletes' "punishment" as their sport.
Long distance running at its core is one of the oldest forms of athleticism and how these runners can do this day in and day out is one of the most impressive things in sports. Plenty of people have a goal of running a 5K, 10K, or a half marathon, etc. Cross-country runners accomplish those goals on a regular basis.
According to KCRG, Osgood won in a school record/course record of 15 minutes and 2 seconds, while Wilson finished in 15 minutes and 8 seconds. Both with times good enough to put them in the record books. Osgood talked to KCRG about the race and what his dream time to beat is.
Two weeks ago Miles beat me, being able to not get dropped and actually pull out a victory was pretty exciting. My over-the-moon goal, I wanted to break 15, so this race being two seconds off was really just a confidence booster.
It seems like Osgood and Wilson have a pretty friendly rivalry and do a good job of pushing each other to be their best. They are two of the best cross country runners in the state and when they both crossed the finish line, they gave each other a huge.
On the girl's side of things, Haidyn Barker won with a personal best time of 19 minutes 1 second.