Photo provided | Ashton Wischmeier
Before cross country practice gets started at CSA Lincoln, students swirl around the gym playing basketball, hopscotching and generally exerting energy pent up over a school day. So much so it can be hard to believe they’re about to spend the next hour jogging to and around Mill Race Park— but they will.
BCSC’s elementary cross country (ECC) program, now in its second year, is available for students from third to sixth grade, giving them an opportunity to take part in a sport that teaches hard work, perseverance and helps them develop some school spirit.
For CSA Lincoln sixth-grader Harrison Severance, the most difficult part isn’t about finding the energy to keep going — it’s about getting the get-up-and-go out.
“The hardest part about running for me is letting out my energy because I pace myself too much,” Severance told The Republic in between swigs of his water bottle. He feels as though he’s had a positive showing so far this year, Severance said, “but my favorite part about cross country is there’s always time to improve.”
All 11 BCSC elementary schools are involved in the program that grew from 457 students last year to 532 this year. It joins cheerleading and basketball as sports BCSC offers at the elementary level.
The six-week season kicked off in August and consists of three meets— the Raider Rally and Ceraland Classic, which have already concluded, and the BCSC ECC Championships. The culmination of the season comes right before the Mill Race Marathon Fun Run, set this year for September 27. At the inaugural BCSC XC Championships last year, 10 of 11 elementary schools had at least one student earning a podium finish in their division.
Christina Newell, BCSC’s ECC Coordinator, has been involved with youth running clubs from central Indiana down to Columbus. She organized a school-based running club at Rockcreek over a decade ago and later was one of the co-founders of Indiana Pathfinders — Columbus Running Club’s youth cross country program. Newell observed that while they had a significant amount of participation in Pathfinders, it was pretty much always the same group of kids and families who could pay the fees involved and also had reliable means of travel.
Newell, who previously had taught elementary and recently transitioned to high school, wondered: “What would this look like if we brought this to the school grounds, where the kids wouldn’t have those financial barriers?”
“I just felt like there were so many of my students who would probably be interested in participating in something like a cross country program if it was school-based,” Newell said.
Conversations began between Newell and others about the idea of establishing a district-wide school-based cross country program. COVID delayed the plans, but thanks to a $40,000 donation from CRH Healthy Communities to fund the program for three years, things got up and running.
Newell was also able to gather $6,500 in additional funding through the AEI Youth Sports Fund and another donation from CRH Healthy Communities so kids who qualify for needs-based assistance could get shoes through White River Running Company. The response was so strong that those funds quickly ran out, which led Columbus Running Club to provide an additional $5,000 to help interested students get the gear they need.
Drew Wyant coaches the boys team at CSA Lincoln, alongside Jason Niederhauser and Ashton Wischmeier — all avid runners themselves. The three know one another through the local Crispy Bois Jogging Club.
Students are organized by division based on their ability level. Wyant says the season starts with a 1,200-meter time trial to get a sense of where each kid would best fit — several students have already eclipsed the time of their initial showing.
As the students wind their way through Mill Race Park, the coaches encourage the boys and make sure they take breaks and get properly hydrated.
“Second lap! This one’s for all the … marbles … or championship,” one coach says.
For a lot of the runners, they’re just glad to be outside after a day of learning.
“I just love getting to run outside, because I think it’s really, really fun,” Eli Henry, sixth grade, said.
“Eli’s like the fastest kid on our time,” Severance said of his teammate.
Henry confirms this: “I’m just really good at running. I’m in good shape, so I’m able to run long distances without me getting tired running.”
When asked for tips or tricks, Henry said it’s important to breathe “up through the nose and out through the mouth.”
