INJURIES: Many Poly cross country athletes recently suffered injuries that temporarily incapacitated their running abilities.
By Jorge Carreon, Sports Writer
Injuries can be very disappointing to athletes, especially after working hard season after season. As many Poly cross country athletes vigorously train and compete, a few injuries are prone to happen. One cross country athlete in particular suffered injury while participating in a different sport. Megan Reed (11) recently broke her nose while playing soccer. Coincidentally, she is not the first runner on the cross country team to experience this. Last year, Matthew Beasley (Class of 2013 alumni) also broke his nose while participating in a non-cross country related activity. During a game of Ultimate Frisbee, Beasley was hit in the nose.
“As I pulled with my throw his nose kind of got in the way of the frisbee. He got the full effect of my throw, so you can imagine that right after it happened he was on the ground and his nose was bleeding super bad.” Andrew Addink (10), a cross country runner, (10) said.
Unfortunately, Reed is not the only athlete enduring pain. Some of the would-be top runners are benched due to their injuries. Preston Dodson (11) suffered a stress fracture on his foot; Eric Flores (11) has problems with his Achilles tendon; Aeva Murtaugh (11) is unable to run because of an inflamed tissue; Catherine Bengston (11) has crooked hips; Danielle Castillo (10) has problems with her left knee and Kyle Mackechnie (10) has tendinitis and bursitis.
Although some of these athletes raced in the beginning of the season, they will not finish the season.“It sucks being injured, especially if you’re in the sport you love. Every time I’m at a race, I just want to drop everything and run the race with them,” Bengston said. Even though these athletes cannot race, they still support their team as much as they can by providing their coaches with statistics and attending meets to cheer on their teammates. Until they can race again, these athletes can only keep their chins up and try to recover by the next cross country season.