Shawnee Mission East High School - Hauberk Yearbook (Prairie Village, KS)

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Freshman Carmen Richert runs in the Re- gionals meet. Richert placed twelfth at the meet overall and fourth for the team in the two mile race with a time of 13:28. Richert placed consistently well throughout the sea- son. iphoto by Patty Blissl Nicole Cox. Heather Anderson, Patty Bliss, Linda Long. Carmen Richert, and B.J. New- man, varsity runners for the Regionals meet, wait anxiously at the starting line for the race to begin. fphoto by Valerie Gilgorej

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Senior Patty Bliss runs in the Re- gionals meet at Shawnee Mission Park. Bliss finished the race in seventh place and the girls' team swept the meet with 44 points. tphotn by Valerie Cilgorel -'W is .. ' V ' . srr , .- if 3WlI14fp,9iU10ii-a- . D GAMES There is always a time when a runner is not sure whether or not he will finish the race. but the best runners can push them- selves beyond that point. says girls' cross- country coach John Haraughty. Ninety percent of running is mental. lf two run- ners have equal talent. the one with the better attitude will win. One way runners keep a good attitude is by not concentrat- ing on their surroundings. Senior Patty Bliss mentally detached herself by singing. l zone out and it makes me forget the pain. She admitted that this tendency to temporarily ignore reality did produce some odd personal traits! We fthe cross-country teaml are all a bunch of psychos. lf you think about what you are doing. it just makes it worse. Senior Peter Braude claimed that when he ran. his head was crystal clear. l just focus on whatever comes into my brain for as long as it interests me. No runner can ignore all pain. though. and many runners were sidelined with in- juries this season. Boys' coach Karl Eng- lund and girls' coach Haraughty tried to maintain a policy ofgiving runners a rest if they eouldn't run without affecting their motion. The coaches emphasized that the three most important meets of the year were League. Regionals. and State, so both coaches wanted as many of their ath- letes healthy as possible at the end of the season. The strategy pald off. Both the boys' and girls' teams qualified for State compe- tition. with the girls' team capturing first place at Regionals. The girls then finished fourth at State. while the boys finished ninth. Junior Darren Kennedy. who fin- ished fourth overall and first for the East boys at the State meet. summed up the season: The girls' team recovered from their early-season setbacks and did quite well at State. The boys' team was ham- pered by injuries throughout the season and. unfortunately, never fully recovered. While each runner trains his body dif- ferently for a race. the most important element of running is mental. and it was this element that carried the cross-country team to a successful season. - Mike Bfrrd Cross Country

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Senior Tom Sullivan heads a pack of runners at Regionals. Sullivan finished seventeenth overall with a time of 17:06 in the five kilometer 13.1 milel race. lphoto by Valerie Gilgorej V Cross Country 25