The Cross Country team competed in the District competition at Lorain County Community College on Oct. 21, placing 6th overall. 

The team also competed in the Chagrin Valley Conference meet on Oct. 14, placing fourth overall. 

Beachwood’s boys varsity cross country runners will be headed to Regionals for the third year in a row, including Max Kuenzer, Probir Mukherjee, Henrik Burda, Alex Eisengart, Jumbo Wang, Alias McKinney, Asher Hardis, and Alex Bravo, and girls varsity cross country runner Sasha Kheyfets will be advancing to the Regional Meet on Oct. 28 at Boardman High School. 

Kheyfets is the first Bison girl to advance to Regionals since Leah Roter, who brought home a state title in 2016.

Senior co-captain Probir Mukherjee explained that the team decided to increase expectations for themselves at the District tournament. In order to make it to regionals, the team would have to be in the top seven teams, but for these runners, that was not enough. 

“Our coach was telling us over and over again, you only have to beat one team,” Mukherjee expressed. “But we have to double it. We’re not going to just beat one team, we’re going to beat two.”

Cross Country practices consist of rigorous daily training to increase runners’ time in 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) races. 

Sophomore Junbo Wang explained the team’s training regimen. 

“Practices are from 3:30-5:15 every day on the weekdays,” he said. “Some days, we run easy long distances, like 5-6 miles. Other times, we do speed workouts which are shorter distances at faster intervals.” 

Wang is astonished about how much the team was able to improve in one season. He recently broke his personal record; his time decreased from 17:52 to 17:29, which is a huge 20-second difference. 

“We’re just proud of ourselves because all the training is kicking in,” Wang said. “We are definitely getting faster.”

Mukherjee emphasizes the importance of leadership in the team, even in a more individually- based sport such as cross country. 

“I usually organize the team and during practices, I’ll lead the drills and stretches. This brings the team together,” Mukherjee stated. “To get the spirits up during races before the race, we’ll have a team huddle and captains will give a speech. [This] gets everyone ready for the race and in the right mindset.” 

Coach Lader agrees that leadership fuels the team’s success. “It’s one thing for the coaches to say, let’s warm-up, let’s get going. But leadership takes individuals who will get others going and motivated.”

The practices are not just for conditioning and endurance, but also a chance to socialize and meet new people. 

“I love having an opportunity to hang out with my friends all the time,” sophomore Sasha Kheyfets said. “Running is a really good outlet and the fact that people I know are there makes it so much better.”

A tangible goal for this season that everyone seems to agree upon is to make it to the state competition on Nov. 4. 

“My [personal] number one goal is to qualify for States this year and to place,” Mukherjee said. “[The goal] for us as a team is to make it out of the region and go to States. [We need to] to figure it out during districts and regionals in the postseason so that we have a really coherent team that works well together.” 

Moving into Regionals, it has been a great season and the cross country runners are extremely proud of their achievements. 

“All the stars are finally aligned,” Wang said. “We have the best runners all in one team. I think that’s partially luck, but mainly the work we’ve been putting in.” 

Mukherjee agrees and is confident that there are more successes in store for the Beachwood Cross Country Team.

“Even though the odds were stacked against us, we made it happen,” he said. “We didn’t let excuses get in the way and we gave it our all.”

For Lader, it’s not just about winning.

“It’s most important that everyone comes out and has a really good time,” Lader stated. “Success comes with having a good time.”