As they lined up at the starting line, the Atoms Boys Cross Country team set out to achieve something that has not been done in AHS history in the past 15 years: qualify for the cross country 6A North Regional Championship meet.

After months of hard work in practice under new head coach Dave Ciccarelli, the team placed fourth at the Patriot Conference Championship meet qualifying for the 6A North Regional Championship meet.

“We did intense workouts on the track which helped us prepare for the race and and planned which guys from each school we had to beat,” sophomore Abbey Yared said.

The team had total of seven runners compete at the meet: seniors Dagim Tigabu and Mahiteme Tigabu, juniors Zaid Al-Kahfah and Tyler Westfall, sophomores Abbey Yared and Ethan Zimmerman and freshman Mikyas Sahlu.

Two Atoms, brothers Dagim and Mahiteme earned medals at the meet, Mahiteme coming in 11th overall and Dagim following in 13th place overall.

“In order to perform well at conference we started out by training in early June and took everyday as an opportunity to get better,” Mahiteme said.

Both Dagim and Mahiteme ran a time of approximately 16:09 and were separated by less than one second.

“We ran a lot of miles during practice and did a lot a lot of workouts to prepare for conference,” Dagim said.  

All Atoms at the meet were able to break previous personal records and set new best times all under 17 minutes.  

After their outstanding performance at the conference meet, the team looks to continue their success into the 6A North Regional Championship meet on Nov. 2.

“We are continuing to train the way we have the whole season to prepare for regionals but we are going to pick up the pace,” Yared said

The team will be working hard this coming week in preparation for the meet.

“We are preparing for regionals by staying on the same routine to work hard and get the job done,” Mahiteme said.