The hills were not the only ups and downs that cross country team members had to face this season. From placing as a team, to managing a small team and the challenges that came with that, the Bears persevered together.

Sophomore Nagmeldin (Nick) Abdalla’s name became a familiar sound at the end of races when final times and placements were announced. He earned first place in nearly every meet that he ran in with his fastest time being 16:50.30.

Not only did Abdalla’s first place finishes help the team score for the boys, it also helped motivate the rest of the team.

“Anytime you have a runner scoring first it obviously helps the team score, but even more importantly, it helps build confidence in the rest of the team that they can be successful too,” head coach Charles Cuddy said.

While the team was happy for Abdalla, they focused more of their attention towards growing as a team and having each athlete improve their own times to help the team scores.

“This sport becomes a lot more fun when the team is relying on the person finishing 20th or 40th for team points as much as we are on the individual finishing first,” Cuddy said.

That belief was proven at the Waverly Invitational on Sept. 14, when the varsity boys earned a first-place team championship, out of 10 teams. Abdalla earned first place at the meet, defeating the number three ranked runner in class B by over nine seconds. Freshman Derrick Buggi earned 13th and senior Johnny Montalvo earned 20th. Senior Wilian Herrera and freshmen David Lugo and Lorenzo Matias also contributed to the win.

“It [the Lincoln meet] is our first team championship at a varsity meet in several, several years,” Cuddy said. “It was fun to see them start to realize it [that they won]. They definitely thought they were going to get second, so when they didn’t get second they were pretty disappointed, but then they realized that they won. It was pretty awesome.”

The boys placed second at Central Invite on Sept. 8, third at the Arlington Invite on Sept. 6, and 7th at the Burke Invite on Sept. 1.

The girls team, who has only run in junior varsity events due having so few girls out for the sport, has also been focused on building each other up and improving as a team instead of just as individuals.

Junior Kaelynne Elliott stepped up to do just that. According to Cuddy, she has taken over making sure everyone is organized for stretching and that they are on time.

Even with having low numbers, the girls pulled out a fourth place finish at the Waverly Invitational. Nearly every girl broke their personal record throughout the season and they ended up running their first varsity run of the season at Districts.

The teams will race together for the last time this season on Oct. 17, at the Omaha Northwest Invitational at Northwest High School and then the qualifying runners will head to the NSAA State championships on Oct. 19.