Warren Cross Country Approach Regionals

Warren County Cross Country Coach Jeremy Wilhelm said with the regionals beginning next week he is confident that his Pioneer runners have hit their stride.

In his first season as an assistant coach for Pioneer cross country, Wilhelm said he has been very pleased with their performances this year. He said while they have been winning events, it is the personal progress his runners have made that stand out to him.

“The season has gone really good,” Wilhelm said. “Watching the student athletes, their times getting better and better. They come to practice with a good attitude, wanting to run, wanting to get better. Just seeing them improve and how happy they are, makes coaching worth it.”

This season has seen freshman Sawyer Knotts shave over six minutes of his time and freshman Emma Woodlee has won back to back meets. Heading into the Front Runner Athletics Championship in Chattanooga, Wilhelm said the message to the team was to relax.

“We knew that it was going to be challenging, so we talked yesterday about not worrying about what place you finish, but let’s go get a good time,” Wilhelm said. “Let’s get a good warm up, a good goal set for us going into Monday of next week. So, the kids have responded really well to every challenge we’ve put in front of them this year, so we’re expecting the same thing today.”

Wilhelm said that this season the Pioneers have run at a variety of different courses that have challenged them in different ways. With the experience the Pioneers have gained running challenging courses, he said the team is ready for anything.

“We’re going to regionals next week, back in Manchester and that’s the first event they ran at the beginning of the year,” Wilhelm said. “Just seeing their times over the course of one week, to the next week, so on. We’ve cut a minute off here, we’ve cut 30 seconds off here, we’ve cut another 15 off here. They are really confident about what they can do.”