(Oakland) Mason McCready and Becca Cody will represent Riverside cross country at the state meet in Fort Dodge on Saturday.
They each qualified with top ten finishes at SW Valley last week. Bulldog coach Alex Oliver says, “Both of them followed the race plan really well. Mason especially got out and hammered some of the hills on the up hills. He worked hard in the middle mile to catch people, to pass people, to set himself up for the rest of the race. When it came to the last 800 of the race he passed two or three more people to really solidify a good spot.”
Oliver says Cody was able to keep a good pace through the middle stages of the race. “Becca moved really well at the start of the race. Her first mile was awesome. Then in the middle of the race sometimes where she kind of falls asleep, that didn’t happen at qualifier. She attacked in the middle and really made some strong moves even though she fell down going across a little bridge. But she got back up and chased some people down and I think that lit a fire for her to stay in contention.”
Oliver points out they had Cody slated anywhere from 8th-15th and she exceeded that expectation with a 7th place run. McCready had a much deeper pool of strong runners that he was able to fend off in order to get in. “For him to go out and just crush it and get 6th and not really have any doubts about it was really good for his confidence. To see him come around with a mile left and no one really that close to him I was really happy for him.”
The Class 1A girls race will start at 2:30 on Saturday with the boys running at 3:15.
Riverside coach Alex Oliver:
