Sophomore Reagan Westphal shaved two minutes off her personal record at the cross country meet in Birdsall park on September 15th. Over 20 schools attended the meet in Cedar Falls including Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior, and Decorah. According to Reagan, Birdsall is one of the harder courses West’s cross country team runs on, making this victory even more monumental. 

Reagan says her motivation on this run was “the girl behind me was from Decorah, they’re one of our biggest competitors and I just knew I couldn’t let her pass me, plus I knew my mom was there and I really wanted to see her.” She also says she is most proud of “my two whole minute PR because Cedar Falls is one of our harder trails to run on and most people come out of there with injuries or added time so to beat my PR is something to be happy about.” 

At the finish line stood Reagan’s biggest supporters. Reagan’s mom, coach, and teammates Jayna Gomez and Grace Braun, stood ready to congratulate Reagan and celebrate this victory. When thinking about what this means for the rest of her season, Reagan says “it means I just have to get faster each time.” 

West placed 10th out of 14 overall schools beating Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Dike-New Hartford, Western Dubuque and Clear Creek Amana. Reagan placed 200th out of 350 total girls with her main competitor being Clear Creek Amana as she was neck and neck with one of their runners throughout the entire race.