Submitted by Thomas Gastineau

Thomas Gastineau had earned a Top Dog position running in the Noblesville Sectionals when he was a freshman. He hopes the team wins State this year.

The men’s cross-country team will be competing  at White River Elementary on Saturday for their Sectionals. According to head coach for the team, Colin Altevogt, although the team is in a competitive area in the state this year, it is not as competitive as it previously has been for the last two to three years.

“Fishers might be the second best team in the state, so it’s still pretty competitive. And, we want to give some of our best guys that we know are going to run the state meet a little time off since it’s four meets in four straight weeks, so we’re not running two of our best guys,” Altevogt said.

Sean Reimer, JV cross-country runner and junior, said the team went back to doing strength workouts after the MIC. But before the Semi-State and State meet, the team will go back to doing faster workouts so the runners who are going to run have the ability to run faster and for a longer period of time since they have to make it through four rounds of running.

Reimer said, “You have to make it through four rounds and run your best on the fourth round. The guys that are going to run in the State meet have really good times so far, so I think that we have a good start and will hopefully win State.”

Thomas Gastineau, varsity runner and junior, said Carmel is very successful when it comes to the Sectionals meet. His goal for the team is for the team to win State and compete in the Nike Nationals.

Altevogt said since cross-country is partially an individual sport, the runners care about the team score the most, but they will set their own goals as will.

“(The runners) have individual goals such as they want to finish in the top 25 in the State Meet or whatever, but our guys principally care about the team score. Every meet there’s good individuals for our guys to run against, so even if we’re the dominant team at the meet, our guys still have people to compete against individually,” Altevogt said.