John Raffel
Sports Scene
Breckenridge’s Nate Partee, a junior, is in his second year of cross country. He joined the team to have a serious activity during the fall.
He doesn’t feel his first year went too badly. “A major highlight was finishing 17th at regionals with a time of 17:49.8,” he said.
Partee has emerged as one of the top runners for Breckenridge.
“We run as a pack,” he said, adding that on any given day, different runners lead the way.
“We’ve been running smart during races,” he said.
Partee’s best time has been 17:18.1. He’s looking to get it down to 16:45.
“I m going to have to work hard,” he said, adding that his kick has been a strong part of his race. “I want to improve on my middle mile.”
The Huskies wouldn’t mind being top five in the state.
“That’s within reach if we all have great days,” he said.
At the Tri-Valley Conference meet, Partee finished 17th in 17:00.8 to lead his team. Kurt Gulick was 23rd in 17:14.9.
For the girls, Kirstin Olling was first in 17:49.1.
Breckenridge coach Royce Humm pointed out a unique activity his team had this season.
“Due to the busy nature of homecoming, many coaches either do an early morning practice on an already long day or cancel practice all together. I am not a big fan of either of these choices,” Humm said. “This year, we are continuing a tradition we started two years ago in the Breckenridge cross country program. This tradition is an effort to increase awareness of the hard work the cross country athletes put in each fall, and in order to fit in a critical practice into a very busy day.”
On October 14, the Breckenridge cross country athletes were scheduled to run the game ball used in the homecoming game from Breckenridge to the opponent’s (Merrill) football field and back to Breckenridge. They started at the football field in Breckenridge and ended by bringing the football into the pep assembly in the gym at the end of the day.
“From the time we leave the football field, we will always have at least one runner running the football (relay style) to Merrill and back to Breckenridge,” Humm said prior to the event. “The athletes not running the football will be in a vehicle that will be accompanying the runner the entire trip.
We will be covering approximately 23 miles.”