The Grit and Grind of Competing in Cross Country State
By Ian Busking
The girls Owasso Rams cross country team won their first ever state championship in Edmond, Oklahoma, on November 4. It may seem like it was a breeze to take home the gold to the average person but, honestly, it was anything but that. From overcoming injuries, quarantine and many other limitations, the Rams did everything to prepare for the state meet. In the thick of all of that was junior Libby Booth, who has proved herself to be one of the best runners on the team since freshman year.
For Libby, after coming off of summer training with no problems, you would have expected everything to go smoothly at the beginning of the season. However, only barely getting into the season, Libby had kidney pains that came out of nowhere which stopped her from racing.
“Libby Booth Running“ Photos by Robin Moneypenny
On the amount of pain that she had experienced Libby exclaimed, “The pain I felt from my kidney infection was quite possibly the worst pain I have ever felt, even with having a really high pain tolerance.”
On top of that, Libby got quarantined which held her out for another two weeks of the season. This put her in the contending to make the varsity squad at the conference meet to be able to run at regionals and state. The probability of her making the top seven runners was very low after missing almost the whole season.
“[The season] wasn’t easy. I had lost so much motivation and honestly had given up mentally. I had a really big decision to make in whether or not I wanted to even try to finish the season” Libby explained.
Libby did the unthinkable in the conference meet at Mohawk park. She had to run the junior varsity (JV) race to earn her spot back. At first, she didn’t even plan on being back on varsity when she first started training again. She saw herself as a part of the JV squad and thought that conference would be her last cross country race as a junior.
However, Libby said, “Something came over me in the race and I just felt a huge urge of motivation to try and see if I could even attempt to get a time to place me back on varsity and luckily, that’s what I did.”
After securing her spot back on varsity, Libby and the rest of the team ran well at regionals but came up short of first place to the defending state champions. Going into the state meet ranked second, the girls ended up winning, thus becoming the first ever girls team to do it in the history of Owasso.
Photos by Robin Moneypenny
I asked her what the key success to winning a state championship during one of the most unique years that the program has had was; Libby said, “The bond with the team is 100% the reason we took the state title. We pushed each other for each other, and we all love another like crazy. This is the closest the team has ever been and I think our friendship has made us fun as a team and very selfless” with a smile.
The 2020 cross country season might be done but don’t worry, there will be more running to come in the spring as the team will be starting the track season. Go out and support your Rams when the time comes around!