Taken by Kylie Hanna
There’s an immense amount of talent in the cross-country team at Hastings High School this year, including sophomore Chelsey Espinosa. She made a huge breakthrough this last week at the Harold Scott Invite at Pioneer’s Park in Lincoln by placing 15th and earning a medal. The last girl to medal from Hastings High was Marika Van Brocklin back in 2012.
Espinosa finished with a time of 20:57, which is a personal record for the 3.1-mile long course. She thought the course was fun because she enjoys hill-running.
“There’s a lot of really subtle hills that felt like they lasted forever. The sun was shining down on us and people were cheering us on to pick it up,” said Espinosa.
She wasn’t thinking about much during the race. Instead, she was just enjoying the scenery.
“I think that my favorite part about cross-country is looking at the nature around me and letting my hair down so that everything flows,” said Espinosa.
After the race, she still had a lot of energy and wanted to keep going.
Espinosa explained that she didn’t feel any different after this meet from any other meet, but it was pretty cool medalling.
She gave all of her credit to the team because they motivated her.
“They work really hard and at practice when the workout is tough they don’t just quit. They make it easier to keep going,” said Espinosa.
Espinosa’s team knows her as a superstitious person. On meet day, she always has to wear a white shirt and black pants. She also always runs with her hair down, as opposed to up, which is what many girls prefer.
Her diet always includes fruit, veggies, milk, lots of water, and sometimes a homemade burrito. She considers herself a healthy eater. The only exception is her occasional well-deserved cheat day after a meet.
“The four things I did to prepare for this meet was sleep, hydrate, eat well and practice,” said Espinosa.
In Cross-Country practice the team runs 5-8 miles each day, which usually takes about 2 hours. “Usually we just focus on training properly like running in the heat or wind,” said Espinosa.
Pace is also very important in cross-country training.
“We work on pacing by doing a 500 or 1000 on a time interval that Coach Rosno gives us. I still have trouble controlling my speed at the beginning of races so I’m glad we work on pace a lot,” said Espinosa.
Chelsey’s biggest advice for students that want to do well in cross-country is to have patience.
“Don’t worry about how other people are doing because that tends to affect your pacing and ultimately how well your race goes,” said Espinosa.
