Morton Cross Country
First meet at his new school - Alex runs for Morton now and is in the front row in red, furthest to the right of our team.
In all his excitement to be back running again, Alex took off really fast at the Richwoods meet - gotta love those yellow and blue spikes he's wearing!
Alex still going strong mid way thru, just ahead of teammate Nathan.
After the race Alex gets some encouragement from Dad - must have been a warm day!
And now to the next meet in Galesburg - the Morton boys get ready to race! You can't see Alex - he's on the far side...
Running again - Alex had a strong race today
Coming in to the finish with a look of determination!
And now on to the Pekin Freshman Invite - a smaller field and Alex taking off right for the front from the team's start position on the side.
Alex comes down the hill about mid way through the race...
And then up a hill near the end - Alex finished in 3rd place - great job Buddy!
Alex's big chance - he's running Varsity today! And it's a huge meet - The Woodruff Invitational. Alex is the blonde in red on the right...
Heading out in the field of well over 200!
Alex going strong about a third of the way through the race...
Alex still looking good just after the two mile mark!
And now coming in for a strong finish - a great time for Alex today of 17:32! A new personal best!
And back to mid-week meets and smaller crowds, the boys take off at Canton
Alex about half way through the Canton race
And then at Dunlap, Alex runs the Open race, in the lead to start!
Still holding onto the lead...
At about 2 miles now, still in the lead but the competition is closing...
Coming in for the finish - with a new personal best of 17:28 (but not thrilled with his 3rd place finish, behind two seniors!)
And the first meet for Alex on the Morton home course at Northwoods Park (which is just around the corner from our house!). Joe is on the right, Austin on the left with Dale right behind him, and you can see Alex's head just over Dale's shoulder - keeping up with the big guys as a Freshman, way to go Alex!
Coming around the corner right after Nathan and Dale
And Alex comes around the corner half way through and takes one of his well known stumbles - this time caught on film!
But the burst of 4 pics lets us see that he is up and going right away - nothing slows him down!
Coming in for a strong finish at the home meet!
At Metamora's meet now, Alex about 1/3 of the way into the race at this point while Curt cheers him on from the side
Getting some encouragement from Dad while he rounds one of the final corners - coming in for yet another personal best time, this time running the course in 17:10!
Another fan of our cross country team took a lot of pictures of the kids over the season and shared them with us, so the following pictures are from Steve - thanks Steve!
The boys warming up, but Alex must already be warm since he's the only one not wearing his sweatshirt...
Alex sprained his ankle in early October and had to miss a race, so he took the opportunity to be the filmmaker for his teammates - way to support the team!
Alex and most of the other varsity guys warming up for the Mid-Illini conference meet at Detweiler. Alex has only been running a few days since returning from his sprained ankle...
Awesome picture of the start of the conference race - Alex seems to like to start on the right hand side of the Morton team...
Coming in to the finish - looks like that ankle is bothering him...
Another amazing picture by Steve - and it looks like it is centered right on Alex! The guys are warming up for the regional meet.
And now it's time for the State Meet! The team just missed qualifying, but Joe advanced on his own and the rest of the varsity guys came out to support him during his race! Alex is the exclamation point!!!
With Joe in the middle, the rest of the guys warm up with him before he runs the state meet. Joe finishes in 6th place today!!!
The Morton boys and coaches with Joe at the State Meet.
And to finish the season, at the team banquet Alex is named "Fastest Freshman" - Super season Alex, keep running and getting faster all the time!