Isaac Compaore, sophomore, has been running in cross country since seventh grade, starting his career at Rosemont Ridge Middle School. He started running for fun prior to joining the long distance sport due to his love for track.

“I just [started cross country] because I thought it would be fun,” Compaore said. “I already knew I was good at running before that because I did track.”

In the spring, Compaore does track for the school in four different events, three containing distance.

“I run the 800 and 400 meters primarily, and then I do high jump too,” Compaore said. “My favorite individual racing event is probably the 800 meter, and I like the 4×400 meter relay too.”

At the Northwest Classic, Compaore ran a time of 16:30 and placed thirteenth out of 100 runners. Likewise, the varsity men’s team won second across the whole meet beating out 13 other schools.

During training, Compaore enjoys running with his teammates.

“I basically like running with all the kids in my grade on varsity,” Compaore said. “We’ve all been together from the start so it’s really fun and we’re all at the same level.”

Tai Brown, junior, is now beginning his third year on the varsity track and field team. He first started running with his dad at 5 years old, and now Brown runs anything between 800 meters to 3k, in addition to throwing javelin in the track season. 

This season, he is most proud of his ability to work hard consistently toward his goals.

“Most of the time I spend training is during the summer,” Brown said. “I’ll run twice a day and then I’ll get around 60 miles a week.” 

Brown aims to get around 16:10 for his time this season, and is hoping that the varsity team will make it to the state competition and place. He believes in his teammates and is looking forward to a successful junior year season. 

“We have a good group of guys that are fast this year, which makes our team scoring good pretty consistently,” Brown said.

Brown’s favorite events to run are the 800 meters and 1,500 meters, and his personal record (PR) is 16:48. He has been running competitively since the sixth grade, and is now starting to consider running at the collegiate level. Brown is interested in D3 schools on the east coast, or joining a running club.

Outside of school, Brown enjoys running while listening to Tyler the Creator or Tai Verdes, and frequently trains with his friends and younger brother, Leo Brown, sophomore, who is also on the varsity team. 

“Whenever we are on vacation [Leo will] come out with me. He’s a good training partner to have everywhere,” Brown said. 

However, the sport does not come without its challenges. After being sick during the past few competitions, Brown is mindful of his attitude while coming back.

“It’s hard to get out of your head after a few bad races, [but] I try to remind myself of good workouts or races I’ve had in the past, because I know I can overcome those challenges,” Brown said.

Following in his family’s footsteps, Leo Brown, sophomore, started running cross country in middle school. One of his brothers, Tai Brown, junior, is also on varsity with him.

“Both my brothers did cross country, and my dad and my mom both ran so it was kind of natural,” Brown said. “It was something to do in the fall, and I enjoyed it.”

Outside of the cross country season Brown also participates on the track and field team. 

“I also run distance for track, mainly the 3k,” Brown said. “The lowest I’ve run is the 800 [meters], and I’ve run the 4×4 400 with some of my other teammates. But I’m not as good at the shorter stuff.”

Reflecting on his running career, there is one moment that stands out for Brown. 

“I think one of my proudest races was my track 3k [personal record],” Brown said. “I led most of the race, and even though I ended up losing the race, I was happy with my effort and that I was able to push myself.”

Brown has had to overcome obstacles while running, including self-motivation. 

“I’ve been lucky to be injury free so far, but I know sometimes during the winter, at least the winter last year, I found it hard to look ahead [to track season] and look forward to racing,” Brown said. “This summer I overcame that by enjoying the process. Then I was ready by the start of the season to start racing.”

Looking towards the future with cross country, Brown hopes to keep running in college. 

“I’d love to run in college, even if it’s just D3 I would like to continue running in some fashion, if it’s for the varsity team, or a run club at the college I go to. I think it would be a fun experience to just keep running,” Brown said.

Varsity captain Ryan Lippert, senior, began running cross country halfway through his sophomore year after transitioning from playing soccer.

“I was on the varsity soccer team and varsity cross country team my sophomore year, and then starting my junior year I just did cross country,” Lippert said.“I was enjoying [cross country] more, and I thought I had more potential, and I’ve been able to take it farther than I [could] while I was in soccer.”

Lippert was led to make the switch to cross country by his sister.

“I always ran a lot during soccer games, and my sister did cross country, so she was like ‘You should come out and try it.’ One day I just decided to, and then from that point on, I didn’t look back,” Lippert said. 

When the cross country season ends, Lippert participates in track and field. However, an injury kept him from running last season.

“I had to miss the whole track season, which was tough for me,” Lippert said. “I also missed a good part of the summer, so I wasn’t running as much as some of the other guys, but I’m healthy now, so I’m able to run more. Hopefully I’ll get back to where I was last year.”

After high school, Lippert hopes to continue running in college and has already received offers.. 

“I’m planning on running in college. I’ve got a few offers, mainly from George Fox, which is a top ten D3 school in the country, so I’ll most likely go there,” Lippert said. 

In the midst of his varsity debut, Emerson Bush, sophomore, is a long distance runner who started the sport in third grade.

“[Third grade was] when I started racing like, in actual races,” Bush said. “My mom was a cross country coach and she ran in college, and same with my dad. My mom is a strength teacher and she helps me strengthen muscles that need help building and all that.”

Along with participating in the year-round cross country season, Bush also participates in track and field.

“This is my first year on varsity for cross country. I did run some races on track for varsity, though,” Bush said. “I think I’m the best at longer distances, a lot of miles.”

Cross country practices often involve long distance runs in West Linn and other nearby cities.

“We have a long run on Saturdays and then two to three workouts during the week,” Bush said. “The rest are easy recovery workouts that are like four to seven miles. [I prefer] the easy runs, because it’s at a pace where you can talk with friends, so we just talk a lot and have fun.” 

Bush has both personal and team goals, but sometimes unforeseen challenges can get in the way of their season.

“[My team goals are] probably just to make it to state, train hard, and push each other. [In] my last two races I broke 17 [minutes for a 5k]. Going into the season that was my main goal, and I did it like my first two races,” Bush said. “Sicknesses and injuries are the biggest [obstacles]. I had this problem behind my knee, and extending my leg would hurt. I just took the rest I needed and didn’t rush anything.”

In the future, Bush hopes to go to the University of Oregon and continue his running career. But for now, he’s focused on his high school season and enjoys running with his teammates.

“I think we all work hard and have the same goals, so we kind of push each other,” Bush said.

Starting cross country in sixth grade, Quentin Flintjer,  junior, joined the varsity team this year with the goal of running a 5k under 16:50. 

“My parents’ rule has been we have to do a sport every year, no matter what it is. I didn’t really know what to do, so they just put me into cross country,” Flintjer said. 

Overcoming a knee injury in eighth grade, Flintjer uses self-motivation to push through tribulations in the sport.

“In eighth grade I dislocated my knee that took a while to recover from. I’ve had knee issues ever since then,” Flintjer said. “I had to go through physical therapy, but telling myself where I wanted to be and what I had to do to get there.”

On top of running cross country, Flintjer also runs track.

“I do the 1500 [meters] and the 800 [meters], and I’d say it’s a lot more suspenseful than cross country,” Flintjer said.

With individual setbacks at recent meets, Flintjer uses team successes as motivation to rebound from shortcomings. 

“Individually I didn’t do that great, I didn’t [get a personal record], but our team got second overall out of 30,” Flintjer said. “We got team awards and got to go up on the podium.”

In his future, Flintjer hopes to run at the University of Oregon to continue the sport in any way he can.

Charley Aguilar-Auld, sophomore, has been on the cross country team for the past two years. He is in the top seven fastest runners on varsity and is also a member of the track team during the spring. 

Aguilar-Auld started running long distances during his eighth grade year, at the insistence of some of his friends. Although he found it difficult at first, he soon started to enjoy running and participating in meets.   

“I started [running] because one of my friends, he’s also on varsity, Emerson [Bush] convinced me to try it in eighth grade,” Aguilar-Auld said. 

This year, his main goal is to improve on his previous times and scores. With a current personal record (PR) of 16:55 in the 5k, he hopes to quicken his pace throughout the rest of the season.

“I really want to be in the top five [on varsity], and I want to go sub 16:40 for the 5k,” Aguilar-Auld said. “I want [the team] to make it to state, so top two in our district, and then placing well at state.”

Throughout his past two years running, Aguilar-Auld’s confidence has been the defining factor in his improvement.  

“My first year, I wasn’t really confident at all and I didn’t really know anybody,”  Aguilar-Auld said. “But once I knew people, I started gaining confidence and I started running a lot better.”

In any sport, having people you look up to can motivate you to continue to try your best. Aguilar-Auld looks up to the gold medalist of the Summer 2024 Olympics in both 10,000 meter and 5000 meter runs, the third woman in history to win both events.

“I like Beatrice Chebet, she’s probably my favorite [professional runner],”  Aguilar-Auld said. “I really like the way she runs in her races, and she’s really consistent.”