{"id":75923,"date":"2023-10-31T08:25:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=75923"},"modified":"2023-10-31T08:25:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:25:38","slug":"hodsden-and-cross-country-team-look-to-continue-successful-season-at-regional-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=75923","title":{"rendered":"Hodsden and cross country team look to continue successful season at regional meet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By RAEGAN NEUFELD<\/strong>
Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieving both individual and team success this season has been fun for Regan Hodsden, and her excitement for the remaining races is only increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Hodsden became the first runner from the Fort Hays women\u2019s cross country program to win an individual MIAA title. She is now preparing for the Central Region Championships, with hopes of qualifying for nationals for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Hodsden said. \u201cI feel like sometimes people get to this point in the season where they\u2019re just tired, and for me I feel like this is when I get the most excited because it\u2019s super competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making it to nationals last year as an at-large qualifier was something that motivated Hodsden going into this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew coming in this summer I wanted to train hard so this year I didn\u2019t necessarily have to worry about that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodsden was performing well last season, placing in the top five or six at a majority of the meets. That success was taken to another level this year through a culmination of hard work, motivation and consistent progress, which resulted in three first-place finishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver time the more consistent you are, the stronger you are,\u201d she said. \u201cEven from starting college to now I feel like I’m a stronger runner and I\u2019m able to handle more miles and harder workouts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodsden\u2019s mental strength played just as big of a role in her conference win as her physical strength did. She sees getting up in the morning to train during the summer and a winning mindset as some of the keys to finishing in first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing into races you never know how anybody\u2019s going to race,\u201d she said. \u201cYou just have to be ready for anything and ready to compete. Learning how to race and knowing how your body\u2019s going to handle it, and just going out there and doing the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head Coach Jason McCullough also attributes Hodsden\u2019s success to her commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just been super consistent and we see a lot of improvement when you can do those things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her commitment can also be seen in the way she has stepped into a leadership role as one of the upperclassmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe gets up early, does all the runs, has a good attitude and puts in the work,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cShe\u2019s a leader by example and those are really important to have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consistency over the past few years has been the key for the entire women\u2019s team, who have finished in the top five at every meet this season, including three first-place finishes. According to McCullough, other factors in their success are enjoyment and satisfaction in the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While for a runner that may mean putting in the work and seeing results, those results are not always linear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes people get better and then they get injured or they have a little down spell,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cTo see that improvement, whether it\u2019s consistent or in spurts, is really important to a runner. I think our girls have seen that. We\u2019ve had some injuries over the years, we\u2019ve had some setbacks, but they\u2019re really starting to see some improvements now and that\u2019s really fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCullough also acknowledged the importance of a good team dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re just out there for yourself it\u2019s pretty easy to lose motivation and it\u2019s pretty easy to slack off,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re working for somebody else and realize that their success is based on how you run and how hard you work, it brings you up to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodsden can attest to this, as she finds having a good team to train with keeps her accountable. She also wants her competitiveness to rub off on the younger runners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team is younger,\u201d she said. \u201cSo by giving them the opportunity to see what success can be like and to motivate them, hopefully in the future even when I\u2019m not here they\u2019re still doing well and wanting to win and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team will compete this weekend at the Central Region Championships with the race set to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday in Joplin, Missouri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By RAEGAN NEUFELDTiger Media Network Achieving both individual and team success this season has been fun for Regan Hodsden, and her excitement for the remaining… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":68415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[319,7349],"tags":[7970,14226,15439,15438],"class_list":["post-75923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cross-country","category-sports","tag-cross-country","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-regan-hodsden","tag-womens-cross-country"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/5H2A0090-scaled-e1698758674352.jpg?fit=1708%2C1216&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75924,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75923\/revisions\/75924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}