The Perry boys cross country team will officially open their season tonight at Grant Woods Park for the Madrid High School Boys Cross Country Meet. The Bluejays will finally begin their season after their meet last week at Gowrie Municipal Golf Course got postponed due to heat. Woodward-Granger, Madrid, Woodward Academy, Coon-Rapids Bayard, Panorama, Ogden, and Colo-Nesco are among the teams that will be at the meet beginning tonight. I spoke with boys cross country coach Tina Lutterman. She said simulating a real 5k during the summer is an important step in making sure everyone is prepared to begin the season, especially for incoming freshman.

“The distance is a lot farther in high school, you know they’re running a 5k vs 2 miles back in middle school and so it’s an adjustment for them. We run a practice 5k so they understand the distance and they’ve been timed on it. We did that in practice about a week ago just so they could get a feel of what it would feel like to run the whole distance as hard as they could and then be able to make changes to their pace or changes to their start, and maybe save a little more for the end. We’ve run that distance so it gives them a little feedback so they can understand what they are getting into as well,” Lutterman said.

The gun will go off at 5:45 at Grant Woods Park tonight. I will provide all results after the meet right here on KDLS and raccoonvalleyradio.com