by Melissa Smith

Sports Writer

The Johnson XC team is known to be a very close knit and crazy group, they bond as a team and it defiantly helps them do better. They can be pretty out there, especially in the locker room.

“In cross country, we have a toaster in locker 10. It is called the toaster locker and will always be the toaster locker,” said sophmore varsity cross country runner Katie Walsh. “All the other sports are jealous. We alternate between nutella, peanut butter, apple, butter, and then some bagels and pop tarts.”

The students all know how early the runners have to get to school for practice, and most of us find waking up that early (practice starts at 6:15) to be tedious. Though, they don’t mind. In fact, most of them like it.

“Waking up early is a beautiful part of life that all high school employees and students  should experience.” said Walsh.

Like they say, practice makes perfect, and they are getting pretty darn close to it. The team, especially the girls, have been doing much better this year with better places than previous years.

“We are practicing really hard to get to state, well the girls are. The best runners are Lauren Hierholzer and Emma Love [for the girls], and Jake Sanchez and Andrew Rogers [for the boys].”

In order to run 3+ miles, you got to be pretty hyped and energized.

“[Before meets] We get pumped, we jam a litte, we jam A LOT. We scream. We do a little dance.”

The team likes to let all the other schools to know who they are, and make themselves known.

“We have a theme song, and sing it very loudly for everyone to hear. It’s the pokemon theme song,” said Walsh, who says they are all very proud that they are the Johnson XC team.