MileSplit Ohio's Nate Shively caught up with Hudson girls cross country head coach, Megan Petraska to discuss the team's goals for the upcoming season.
Hudson finished 10th in the team standings at last year's OHSAA D1 State Cross Country Championships, separated by only six points from 7th place Springboro.
Top finishers Brenna Beucler and Emmaline Hannan head into their senior seasons leading one of the deepest squads in Ohio. The Explorers have 11 of their top 12 runners from last year returning this season, with their top six runners all coming back.
This was a team that saw six girls go under 20 minutes in the 5k. An eager and experienced group, the Hudson girls will look to make some noise this fall.
MileSplit Ohio:
How has summer training been going during these uncertain times? What has the team's morale been like?
Coach Petraska:
Our summer training took a bit of a different look procedure-wise this summer, but the girls were awesome about keeping a positive mindset and looking past challenges and instead seeing opportunities. We had great attendance at our summer team runs and I have seen excellent growth from many of our girls: they have all grown in their mental toughness, as there was much solo training last spring and this summer. However, because we did not race at all last track season, we were able to up the girls' mileage and get a solid training block in, which helped them grow physically. Given all this, morale is high for both our coaches and our runners and we have lots of productive energy at practice. We are all just thankful to be together.
MileSplit Ohio:
What does the team's training look like from now until the start of the season? What's your training philosophy?
Coach Petraska:
My training philosophy is to develop the entire person; I always tell the girls I want them to be great runners and even better human beings. To work on the running side of that philosophy, we divide our training into phases. We use the summer to build our mileage base. Once we begin August practices, we switch gears a bit and start to add in workouts a few days a week. My assistant coaches and I like hill work, mile repeats, and 1000's as workouts before we start racing. We have 65 girls on the team, so these kinds of workouts allow us to set target times (we use Jack Daniels' charts to find them) for each individual on the team and monitor their fitness gains. It also helps our runners work on learning how to pace and how to push through pain, as our workouts total to a much larger volume than they will have to race. When we start racing, we shift into some different, shorter workouts to help brush up on speed/turnover (we like 400 repeats a lot for this), and then late in the season, we will start to work toward each runner peaking for their final race.
MileSplit Ohio:
The team finished 10th at the state meet last year, and the girls were really only a few points away from 6th place. What are some team goals the group has for the season?
Coach Petraska:
Yes! The state meet is always highly competitive, and we tell the girls every place matters, but it seemed especially tight last year, which is a testament to the great programs we have in Ohio. This season, the varsity girls are focused on doing better than last year at the state meet; it definitely stung for them to see how close they were to placing higher and it has been very motivating. For our JV runners, their goal is to keep working to become our next varsity runners. For our open runners, their goal is continuous improvement. And for every runner, regardless of their placement on the team, the goal is always to be better than yesterday, as a runner and as a person.
(Rising senior, Sydney Gallagher, shown at the 2019 GlenOak Golden Eagle Invite)
MileSplit Ohio:
You have 11 of your top 12 runners from last season returning this year, what is it like to have that kind of depth?
Coach Petraska:
We are really fortunate to have great depth this year, and we do not take it for granted. Having such depth helps us a lot with workouts and accountability. We use our experienced runners to model what we want our standard to be every day for practice, whether it be an easy run, a core workout, form drills, or mile repeats. We have some very speedy workout groups too, given the volume of girls we have that can go sub-20 and they pull others along with them to faster paces, which helps us to continue to develop.
MileSplit Ohio:
Can you highlight some of the Hudson up-and-comers? What are you looking for from your underclassmen this year?
Coach Petraska:
We have a number of runners who have really impressed us so far, which makes me really excited! Emily Ritenour has grown into a totally different runner than she was last year. We picked up Claire Campanelli, who has not run cross country in the past, but who had a great time trial on the first day of practice. Our two freshman phenoms from last season, Lena Clemens and Eve Jones, continue to progress. Freshmen Ellie Gallagher, Ava Lukac, Nataleigh Nigrelli, and Ava Stephanoni have incredible potential and we cannot wait to watch them race. We are also looking forward to great seasons from Ali Menendez, Constance Loring, Natalie Brown, Caroline Groff, Meredith Judson, Kate Koennecke, Jordyn Farley, Grace Kempf, and Zoe Kippley. From our underclassmen, we are looking for them to grow in their confidence, racing IQ, and their ability to get comfortable with being uncomfortable in a race. Given that we will graduate 21 seniors, we will be counting on them big time next season, so this is their dress rehearsal.
(The Explorers have been successful year-after-year - shown below, the 2017 squad)
MileSplit Ohio:
Is there anything else you would like to say about your team or this season?
Coach Petraska:
I am incredibly proud of this group. They have been resilient and kept a positive mindset through everything which is such a testament to their character. Any opportunity we get to race this season will be one we seize and savor, given the many unknowns we came into the season with (and that still exist). We as coaches are just excited to be able to mentor the girls and to be their biggest cheerleaders as they continue to grow as human beings and runners no matter what form our season takes.
MileSplit Ohio:
Thank you, Coach Petraska. Have a great season!