CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- The Carbondale cross race country teams will compete in Olney on Saturday for sectionals. The Terriers advanced when the girls finished fifth and boys third at Highland Regionals, so both teams punched their ticket. Time to lace up those sneakers and go.
"Yeah we're ready to go fast and also the course is supposed to be really flat so a chance for some PR's too," Carbondale senior Madeline Prideaux said.
"We've put in a lot of miles, a lot of miles over the summer, a lot of work and this is the best I've been all throughout high school and athletically and I'm just excited to see what we can do," Carbondale Tucker Poshard said.
Prideaux finished in third place at regionals and her teammates on the girls team are ready to finish strong at sectionals.
"You go through your practice, you go through, push yourself there and just be prepared to suck up the pain when race day comes," Prideaux said.
The Carbondale boys team is strong too.
Alex Partlow finished first at regionals. He hasn't lost all season and has broken records along the way. Quite remarkable considering he missed last year due to a hip injury.
Poshard came in third at regionals, and you can see him and Alex running side by side at practice constantly pushing each other.
"I always have to beat him by a little bit since we were in the sixth grade, just every single race I've beaten him by like a couple seconds, just barely," Partlow said.
"A portion of my success this season has been attributed to him," Poshard said. "It's great to have someone else up there to be able to run with and a lot of other runners don't have that, and that even comes down to practice and we are able to run together and on the same pace and same schedule so training with someone else definitely helps get you there mentally when it comes down to it."
What is it about him that pushes you?
"Honestly I think it's just a friendship thing. I think we have tons of fun running together, we get to talk the whole time, it's really just a mutual respect for one another and once we get in the race it's the same thing, just a little bit of friendly competition. One's got to keep up with the other.
"We just want to beat each other just to rub it in I guess," Partlow said. "We don't really discuss it but I think we both know that we want to push each other but we also want to win."
Alex says Tucker beats him all the time at practice, but he hates to lose so come game day Alex says the competitor in him comes out to give him an edge, and he's noticed another trend too.
"I have asthma and I really don't use my rescue inhaler before workouts so when I use it before races, I feel extra good, I don't know it's just one thing I do."
All kidding a side, we are in a pandemic so I asked Alex how hard has it been to manage his asthma.
"I'm not going to school, I stay remote. I like remote, I've been sitting on my porch doing school work and staying healthy is a key."
