(Guthrie Center) ACGC cross country coach Colin Shawgo isn’t beating around the bush when it comes to expectations for his boys team this year.
The Chargers are after a state championship. The group finished 4th last year and didn’t graduate any varsity runners. “Maquoketa Valley didn’t graduate anyone either and they were pretty high at the state meet. I think they are probably our #1 competition coming into the season. There is a crew from Central Decatur dropping down from Class 2A and I went to school with their coach and know he does great things there. They are going to be a team to watch. Earlham is bringing back some guys and they could be pretty good. South Winneshiek beat us out last year, so we’ve got our eyes on them this year.”
Defending state champ Madrid loses five of their top six. Last year’s runner-up was Earlham which much replace five of their seven varsity runners. 3rd place South Winneshiek had two seniors. Coach Shawgo outlines the runners poised to lead the way, starting with Trevin Suhr who was 21st at last year’s state meet. “He put in a ton of miles this summer. He has been extremely motivated to go out and show that he can be a top five runner. His goal right now is to break Noah Nelsen’s school record. Once we get that then we’ll focus on placing at state.”
And the list continues…”Justin Reinhart and Andrew Mahaffey have both looked really, really good at the beginning of the season. Kaden Thompson has looked really good and he really came on at the end of last season. He put in some more summer miles than he did last year so I’m excited to see what he can do by the end of the season. We have a couple freshmen Gavin Sloss and Noah Kading that have both been running up there with the pack. We have probably 10, 11, 12 guys that are fighting for varsity spots. When you’re trying to win that state championship that’s exactly what you want to have.”
They are getting after it right away in practice. “With the boys because we have a lot more experience and they know what to expect their practices are much more difficult and getting them prepared for the grind of the season. It’s going to be a lot of work if we want to win that championship and they are up for that challenge.”
Shawgo isn’t concerned about the high expectations leading to too much pressure. “They don’t feel that pressure at all right now. I think if we had gone out and won a trophy last year then that pressure would really be there, but they are just looking at it as their time and their opportunity. They are going out and putting in as much work like they normally would, but they are doing it in a fun way. At our practices the guys are always laughing and goofing around. When it’s time to work, they work. When we are stretching at the end of practice they are hanging out and goofing around again. It’s like one giant family with a bunch of brothers hanging out and it’s really cool to see.”
