8th grader Aubrey Williams has paved her own way to the state cross country meet this year. She finished in 7th place at the Section 1a meet at Northern Hills golf course in Rochester with a personal best time of 20:11 over the 5k course.  The top eight individuals qualify for the State meet at St. Olaf in Northfield, which is held the first Saturday in November.

After a successful season, the young runner was prepared to take on the State meet, a meet many runners dream of competing in.

“I’m a little nervous, but also excited” said Williams. “The highlight of my season was making it to state”.

The cross country season began on September 1 and the team averages a race per week. Williams was Cotter’s top finisher in every race this season. In her second meet at La Crescent, Williams won the 4000 meter race.

Williams consistently placed top 10 at the smaller meets and continued to improve her times with each race.

“I want to keep improving my times and I want to make it to state again in the next few years” said Williams. Given her worth ethic and drive to compete, this shouldn’t be an issue for the eighth grade star. “Cross country is enjoyable because you learn how to push yourself and you get out it what you put into it”.

Just like most things in life, you get out of cross country what you put into it. Williams spent six days a week running during the summer. She credits much of her success this season to her summer running.

Williams also knew what it took to effectively prepare for her season. “I trained hard all week, went through the course maps and picked out people that I wanted to stick with throughout the race”. Any member of the team can recall Williams arriving at a meet and searching for these athletes from other teams.

The Cotter cross country team has consisted of mainly underclassmen and junior high students. However, this hasn’t affected the team’s effort of working together and enjoying their time together as a team.

“I love getting to hangout with people that I don’t see often and be able to run together.” said Williams. The team, as a whole, have had a lot of highlights this season. For Williams, however, it was pranking Mr. Costello after the section meet at the food court in the Apache Mall in Rochester.