To most, endless running would seem like a pointless exercise, or an annoying, yet necessary, part of conditioning for many sports. Yet Alex Moresi (9) takes pride in his sport, he’s willing to do anything to achieve his goals. The freshman varsity cross country runner is preparing for his first high school track season, and he’s working hard to live up to the expectations he set in the fall.
“I feel like track is a lot more popular than cross country, there’s definitely a lot more people running and a lot more people watching,” Moresi said. “But I think this means there’s better competition; it makes you more motivated to know you’re going against the best, and hopefully that means more opportunities to run in college.”
While Moresi isn’t certain about his specific plans for college, he hopes he’ll have an opportunity to run. Nonetheless, he wants to focus on running season by season, keeping his attention on how he can improve. His dedication to the sport is evident by the sacrifices he’s had to make.
“I used to play soccer and baseball, but I don’t play them anymore. Cross country put a lot of strain on my body, and I wanted to focus on what I really wanted to do. Sometimes I think about if I didn’t leave the other sports, but I really think I made the right decision.”
His commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed, he made a name for himself during the fall. Hannah Merriman, math teacher and varsity cross country coach, made the choice to move him to varsity.
“We base it off of time. So who has run the top seven fastest times is typically how we decide who to put on varsity, sometimes we wait to bring freshman on varsity, but we saw something in him,” Merriman said.
Many runners have a difficult time switching from cross country to track. It’s easy to get out of shape between the two sports, however Moresi was prepared. Merriman also believes that his transition will go smoothly.
“Alex did a good job training over the winter and so he is setting himself up to have a successful track season,” Merriman said. “Getting in the miles and getting in the strength training. So I think he’s ready to go.”
Kyle Kassing (12), a fellow varsity runner and friend of Moresi, also sees promise in him. He feels confident that the cross country and track team will be in good hands for the coming years.
“Yeah, he worked really hard last season, he’s always trying to find out how to get better and faster. I’m excited to see where Alex is in a couple of years, cuz’ I feel like he has a lot of room to get better,” Kassing said.