The junior high cross country team may prepare some students to run varsity, but more importantly it shows students what they can do, says coach Justin Caldarone.

Caldarone, a seventh grade social studies teacher and Carlin Danner, a junior high special education teacher, lead the seventh and eighth grade interscholastic team.

For many students, it’s the first time they’ve pushed themselves physically.

Caldarone said what he and Danner try to instill in the kids is “the feeling of leaving it all out there” during a meet.

“It shows you extended yourself a little bit beyond what you think you can do,” he said.

Thursday was the last practice for the team before its first of seven meets. To give students a taste of the real thing, the coaches held a timed mock meet with kids running 1.6 miles around the track and the school fields.

The mock meet gives students a baseline that they can improve on each race.

“Every kid runs faster in the meet than they will here,” Caldarone said. At meets, “You’ve got another school, you’ve got a little more adrenaline going.”

The team has traditionally done well at meets. What will happen this year is anyone’s guess.

Said Caldarone, “I don’t know what I’ve got going.”

Of the 45 students on the team, only eight are returning eighth graders. That does include Meg Hughes, who began running the Marion Mile at age five.

Although she plans to go out for soccer when she gets to the high school, Hughes said she joined the cross country team because of the competition factor. Hughes comes from a line of runners and was in the top three last year.

“I didn’t have to just face the other people in my school,” she said.

Unless a seventh grader surprises him, Caldarone said Hughes will be his fastest runner, hands down.

The competitive element is there, says Danner, but it is as much with oneself as it is other schools.

“You’re kind of racing yourself, trying to beat your best time,” he said.

The coaches also encourage kids to join so they can experience a new sport.

“Middle school is the time to try something new,” Caldarone said. “We try to push the social aspect, too.”

Brenden Nunes, another of Caldarone’s top runners, said the physical aspect of the sport is also important to him.

The coaches teach kids to run with everything they’ve got.

“You don’t feel good when you realize, I had more left. I should have worked harder,” said Caldarone. That’s something Nunes has taken to heart.

Coming in first in the mock meet, an out of breath Nunes said, “I like running and I like staying in shape.”

He loves the sport as much as he does the feeling he’s left with at the end of a good race.

“It’s more long distance, and I can just put my mind to it and kind of escape while I’m running. At the end I feel so relaxed, I could just lay down and fall asleep,” he said.