Sandburg Eagles Fly To Portland!
Having wrapped up a very magical 2014 Cross Country season at the Nike NXN national meet in Portland, I asked the seven Sandburg runners to answer a few questions regarding their experience.
Brandon Lukas really stepped it up during his junior cross country season. After a solid State Meet performance where he ran 15:11 and finished in 59th place, he ran 15:55 at the Nike Regionals and took 60th place. Saving the best for last, he was the Eagles' number two runner at the Nike NXN National meet, finishing in 16:30 and 100th place.
Here's what Brandon had to say about the trip to Portland:
My favorite memory at NXN was the bus rides. The scenery was so magnificent and beautiful. I loved looking out the window and appreciating everything. Half the time, it was all green and forresty and then the other half is all city and that one body of water. The hills were so gorgeous. And even when it was cloudy, everything looked amazing.
How did your race go?
My race went good. I actually started in the back. I worked my way up. I felt strong the whole time. It felt fast and I felt good. It was a really nice race. The mud could have been annoying but I pushed through it. The weather was so nice. The people were real nice too. The racers I mean. There was this one guy who really aggressively pushed his way to the front by grabbing onto people's shoulders and pushing off them. He pushed off me in the beginning. But there was this other racer and he caught up to me and he talked to me during our race and said, "hey, let's run together. Let's catch up to that pack" and I was ok with that and I thought that was really cool how even though we came from different teams/regions and were competing, we could still work together and motivate each other in a positive way. That was truly respectable.
I also felt good that I was doing good for my team. I'm usually not that far up for our team, and because I was, it was exhilarating.
They were nice people. The race felt fast. We were all close together. It was a really nice opportunity. We all had something in common. I really enjoyed it. I liked how they're high schoolers like me. I liked how they all came from different regions of America. People that came from Florida and Texas and Alaska and North Dakota and New York. I imagined what it would be like to live where they live for a day. It was really cool.
I liked it. The hills were rolling. They weren't so steep. It was a fast course. The weather was so nice. It's a shame it rained the day before, but they did their best to dry it up. The mud was only a problem in some parts of the race. But I didn't concern myself with the mud. The course was really nice and they had it all flagged up so I knew exactly where I was going and where I was and how much of the race I had left.
We could get our jackets customized, meaning they would imprint our team name on it. At first, I got the name printed on the back, but I looked at all the other teams and they were getting it on their front pocket and I thought that looked nicer because then people would know where you're from when they see you with that jacket. So I went back to the customization place and I asked for the name to be under the front pocket. I meant under the front pocket FLAP but they put it under the entire front pocket so it looks too low now and I was pretty bummed.
Tell a story about the most interesting person you met at NXN.
The most interesting person I met was Allie Ostrander of Alaska. She won the whole NXN. She's really short and I stalked her on Instagram like months before NXN haha. So when I met her there, I was really shy. I managed to muster enough courage to approach her before and after the race to say "good luck" and "good job". I saw her dancing at the dance but didn't say anything to her. I kind of wish I took a picture of her and me. I didn't want to creep her though.