OKEECHOBEE — The Okeechobee High School boys and girls cross country teams competed in districts Oct. 31 at South Fork.

The OHS girls finished third at the meet with four runners in the top 15 and advanced to regionals as a team. The OHS boys fell short as a team, but four members qualified to advanced to regionals as individuals.

Lady Brahman runners moving on to regionals are Lindsey Saucedo, Leta Adamo, Jackie Jaimes, Callie Phillips, Penelope VanEman, Lauren Sills, Morgan Tucker and Jasmin Saucedo.

Advancing from the boys team are Wyatt Friend, Daniel Phillips, Conner Rucks and Blane Boyer.

COVID-19 forced many high school sports to adjust to new safety measures, and cross country was no exception. The Okeechobee team was no stranger to finding ways to keep active in the face of adversity, though. Last year the team took to running in the halls of Yearling Middle School after school during weeks of endless rain.

But the Brahman runners were also facing another big change — their longtime coach was no longer with the team. Coach A.J. Mayernik began working out of town and was no longer able to continue as the head of the program.

Luckily, assistant coach Tracy Sills was there to pick up the reigns. Sills had been involved with the program since 2015 as a parent and has had assistant coaching duties for the last two years.

“We were able to start conditioning mid-July,” explained Sills, “but when it’s not mandatory, you don’t always get great participation. A few came out pretty regularly, though. With a sport such as cross country, the summer running is key for getting ready for season. I tried to remind the runners of this throughout the summer and encouraged them to be running on their own as much as possible in preparation for the start of the season.”

Brahmans runners weren’t able to start practices until Aug. 24, which is when they would usually be beginning their meets.

“But, despite the setbacks, we got started immediately with practices and the kids adjusted,” Sills said. “Honestly, we were just thankful to be having a season. The kids worked hard to build their mileage foundations, but moved forward with workouts and other training. We had all of our girls return from last season and picked up a few new athletes this season, which added significantly to the depth of our girls team. The boys graduated three last season, but we had several returners and we also added a few more athletes that added to the depth of the boys team as well.”

The OHS cross country team will be back at South Fork on Nov. 7 to compete in the regional meet.

“Our team quote for the season has been ‘If it doesn’t challenge you then it doesn’t change you’,” Sills concluded. “We have certainly faced some challenges, but we’ve done a pretty good job of tackling the challenges and moving forward.”