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Boys’ Cross Country

head-BXC

Coaches and Captains

Head Coach:  Jill Wilder

Assistant Coach: Yaman Habip

Captains: Gabriel Guerrero ’24, Connor Steele ’24, & Alexander Cesaretti ’24

Frequently Asked Questions
How long are your workouts?
Typically, the varsity team runs five miles a day, and the JV and 3rds teams run four and three miles per day, respectively. We warm up with an easy mile and stretch every day to create time to talk and to prevent injury over the long term. Then we begin the workout which lasts for about an hour, including water breaks and rest intervals. Practices run from 1-2 hours, five days a week.

Are there try-outs?
No, we have a program designed to allow everyone to train and compete. Among the 31 runners on the 2002 team, for instance, we fielded an All-ISL senior who owns course records (Austin Watson ’03) and 8th graders who have never run before. Our program believes that everyone can grow into a good runner and learn a lot from the dedication it takes to run cross-country.

Is summer running necessary?
For competitive runners, summer mileage offers a huge advantage, so we encourage the varsity members to run according to the 300, 400 or 500-mile program. Over the years, coaches have noticed that athletes who train over the summer get sick less, injured less, and become faster and faster. While those mileage numbers look big, athletes spread the mileage over 100 days of vacation, and each week includes at least one rest day and easy recovery runs of 20-30 minutes. Over the summer, athletes emphasize long, steady runs, not speed.

How do workouts vary?
Yes, in a typical week, no two workouts are alike. We agree with the current wisdom among running coaches that one long run (about 60 minutes), one tempo run (of 90 percent effort), and one speed run (such as 10 x 400 on our track, or, better, a race) does the trick. Usually, we add to that one recovery run of 30 easy minutes and another recovery day of yoga and a pool workout (which is great on those hot days). This way, we keep things fresh during a season when a varsity runner logs 270 miles over 10 weeks!

How do cross country runners manage all of their obligations?
Over the years, we’ve found that the discipline and release of running actually complements the serious academic and extracurricular program at Milton. Our team earns some of their best grades in the fall during the season. Captain Arkady Ho (’03), for example, has time to sing in an a cappella group, play violin in the orchestra, work as a peer counselor, indulge in the Asian Society’s activities, and enjoy time in his dorm with friends. The fall is busy, but it’s also rewarding to work running into your schedule and bond with a team.

Do runners need special equipment?

We encourage athletes to start the season with a new pair of shoes and, if you are serious, a pair of racing spikes or flats. The team supplies uniforms, warm up jackets and pants, and water bottles; and we make available performance t-shirts (made of Cool Max) and cotton t-shirts earned by special performances.

Cunningham Park Course

Milton Academy Cross Country Course
Cunningham Park, 75 Edgehill Road, Milton, MA 02186

Cunningham Park Course Map

Logistics: Cunningham Park (CP) is located 1.3 miles from the Milton Academy (MA) campus. Teams have the choice of reporting to the Athletic Center at Milton to use the facilities or report directly to Cunningham Park. Please let Scott Bosworth (617-834-9197) which you decide. There are restrooms at CP but there are fewer than at MA. MA will have a trainer present at all races. Please ask your bus drivers to park on Edgehill Road and not to park in the Park’s small parking lot.

Teams should report to the main CP building where they will be met by MA representative that
will show them the facilities and lead them to the course start/finish below the baseball fields to begin a course tour. Teams should locate themselves here for warm-ups, etc.

Course Description: The start and finish are adjacent to each other in the lower field below
the baseball fields and park center. The start takes you through an open soft grass field to a small asphalt walkway along side the swimming pool. Runners will leave this walkway heading out and around a large playing field being sure to stay on the outside perimeter of the fields. The course will then take you, briefly, onto an asphalt driveway/road and over a small bridge with white railings. Staying straight the runners will ascend a short but fairly steep hill leading to an open park field. This hill is covered with pine needles and has some roots to be careful of.

Runners will proceed straight across the field and road joining a wide path into the woods. This
path starts out smooth, leads to some hard gravel and rocks and then onto soft pine bedding. Just before the exit out of the woods is the ONE MILE mark. Exiting the piney wood, runners will take a hard left up a grass utility strip through the woods. This wide open dirt path starts with a small hill then levels out nicely. The runners will then be directed to take a right back onto the path that lead them into the woods.

Less than 1/10th of a mile later the runners will take a right onto a park road made of asphalt
passing a series of park buildings on their left. They will proceed on this winding road down a hill and back along side of the start/finish field. Runners will stay on this flat park road, passing the lawn bowling facility, until they are directed to head back up the short but steep hill they ran up earlier. Please note: Runners must stay on the road until they take the left back up the hill.

Runners will repeat the same exact loop from this point forward. The TWO MILE marker is after
the gravel hill, just after where the path levels off. It will be marked. The only change in the second loop is that when runners come down the winding asphalt road to the lower road along side the start/finish field they will be taking a right mid-way just before the lawn bowling facility. The small road will proceed over another small bridge with white railings. The small road turns into a dirt road then a dirt/pine needle path as it heads in the direction of the start/finish area. This will lead runners back onto the field that they started in and through the shoot to the right of the start.

Directions to Cunningham Park
75 Edge Hill Road, Milton MA
approx. 1.29 miles from campus

From Milton: Going East on Centre Street toward Randolph Ave., turn right onto Randolph Ave. Turn slight left onto Gun Hill Street. Turn Left onto Pleasant Street. Stay Straight to go onto Edge Hill Road.

View 2nd Team schedule and results

Head Coach

Maxine Underwood

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