It’s the day of sectionals, as the race begins, placed in the back of the crowd of runners, Douglas Martin begins to pass runners. Eventually he passes over 100 runners to qualify himself to go to the IHSA state tournament. Throughout the boys varsity cross country team, Martin was the only runner to reach state. 

The boys cross country team is a talented team of boys that works together to try to overcome any obstacle they face and reach success through many levels. Working together as a team helps create confidence going forward in the season. 

“It’s important for the runners to know the training routine so there is full confidence in the workouts and no uncertainty,” stated Kevin Horst, the boys cross country head coach, “In the weeks leading up to the state meet we make sure to do some quality training, but nothing too stressful.”

While the team worked to prepare, Martin was against more than himself during the state race, since there was poor weather conditions affecting the course.

“The wind slowed the race and mud made everyone just slide,” described Martin. 

Even though the weather was inconvenient, Martin still put in maximum effort to do his very best in the race. This was a feat to accomplish, however, throughout the season Marin has been able to push himself and others to do just that. 

“Doug has just completely blown Horst’s expectations out of the water at state,” explained Rayaan Ahmed, a varsity cross country runner. “He has become this runner that really puts everything to it, yet still really enjoys running which is super cool to see.” 

The boys season was one to be proud of, while they did start their season in a direction that could be viewed as negative, they worked to turn the season into a positive one and accomplish some of their season goals. 

“If you look at our statistics, you know, we got better towards the end of the season than we did in the beginning. Normally the team would get good in the middle of the season, and then they drop off. We didn’t do that,” explained Ahmed. “We were a very unique team that was able to be super consistent with the way that we performed.”

Martin and his teammates had a successful season, and proved to themselves that they could push themselves in uncertain and difficult circumstances.