Trojans boys cross-country is looking to improve on last year’s state appearance.
“Last year we went to state as a team,” junior runner Bryce Odegard said. “And this year we would like to win state as a team.”
Trojans coach Matt Kolodzieczyk agreed with his runner.
“I’m very confident that our team will do well,” he said. “We will go to state. It will happen.”
This year the team’s goals have changed from last year.
“We were trying to get runners under 20 minutes and this year we are shooting for the team to go sub-18 minutes.”
Senior runner Stephen Thelaner’s best time last year was 18:59.4.
“My goal is to go sub-18,” Thelaner said. “Having a guy like Bryce (Odegard) on the team makes us all work harder.”
The team leader and top runner this year is Bryce Odegard, who ran a 16-minute 26.3-second run at the Southern Division finals last year. He finished the year as the third best runner in the state. This year the number one and two runners are gone, which leaves Odegard at the top. Odegard has made two appearances at state and in both trips finished in fourth place. The team leader said he is handling the pressure well.
“Yes, there is some pressure,” Odegard said. “But I am not losing any sleep over it.”
The Trojans have six runners returning from that state appearance: senior Stephen Thelaner, senior Dylan Montgomery, junior Bryce Odegard, junior Layron Sonerholm, sophomore Jacob Cipollini and junior Cole Goodman.
The team’s first meet is at Sunrise Mountain and their first invitational is called the Labor Day Classic at Palo Verde High School.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com