In a field interview conducted by Youth Runner Magazine at the Woodbridge Classic, members of the Great Oak girls cross‑country team discuss their recent victory in the Rated Race team title. Freshmen Maddie Bussi, Yonah Castillo, and Scarlet Cook share their first‑time experiences, while sophomores Sion Ortega, McKenna Mitchell, senior Abby Huth, and junior Lauren Miller reflect on personal PRs, teamwork, and the race atmosphere. The conversation covers advice from upperclassmen to freshmen, the influence of earlier soccer games, the importance of staying calm and running together, and the potential for heightened expectations for the team moving forward in the season. The tone is celebratory and supportive, emphasizing camaraderie, personal growth, and collective achievement.
Chapters
Youth Runner Magazine here at the Woodbridge Classic with the Great Oak girls who won the team title for the Rated Race. Congratulations, girls! Why don't you introduce yourselves and tell us about how the race went for you?
I'm Maddie Bussi, I'm a freshman, and this was my first ever Woodbridge race, and I had a real, like, a lot of fun. I felt really strong out there, and I just overall, it was such a fun race. Hi, I'm Yonah Castillo, I'm a freshman, and the race was just really fun. I felt that as a team we were just all working together and Good girl! Hi, I'm Scarlet Cook. I'm also a freshman. Um, this race is new to me, obviously, and I just really love the vibe and how it was at night. It was a lot of fun. I'm Sion Ortega. I'm a sophomore, and I like PR'd basically by a whole minute, and I was so proud. We like, as a team, we worked together and pushed ourselves, so we ran together as a team. It was really good. I'm McKenna Mitchell. I'm a sophomore. This is my second year at this course, and I don't think we could have done this without each other. Hi, I'm Abby Huth. I'm a senior, and this race It was super fun because I knew that each of us were working hard for each other, and so it made it easier to push myself. Hi, I'm Lauren Miller. I'm a junior, and this is my third time here, but this is definitely the best time. Um, my— our team's been working really hard together. Our pack running was stellar. I'm sure— I think everybody was running in some form of a group together, and that kind of teamwork is amazing to see in practice and fantastic to be put into practice here.
Now, I understand some of you had soccer games earlier today. Um, how many How many of you had soccer games today? A couple of you. And then how many of you did PRs today? Let's see, everyone! Some of you have not run this before as freshmen, so how much did the girls who had run it before, how much did that, you know, help you? And what did— let me first ask the girls who had run it before, what did you tell them, the freshmen, about running this race?
I told them that this race is super fun because of how fast it goes by, so just to soak it all in and know that when it hurts to run faster because you don't have very much left. And the crowds here are really loud, so it makes it really fun.
Is that pretty much what the rest of you had run it before told them, or—
I told them to stay calm because obviously we're running so fast that, um, sometimes you can get a little ahead of yourself or maybe be like, oh my God, I'm running so fast. Trying to stay calm, just focus and keep going.
So the freshmen who hadn't run this before, what, uh, What lessons do you remember that they told you, or what did you try and keep in your head as you're running the race?
That's what I remember. Yeah, that was my main thing that I remembered was to work together and just keep like calm mainly, and to watch the girls in front of me and just like keep moving up.
So obviously there's always a lot of expectations for the Great Oak girls, but doing this here at this point in the season, do you think, and especially with a young team, is this going to kind of raise those expectations? I mean, everyone knows about Great Oak, but doing this here, do you think that's going to even get more expectations? Are you girls ready for that, do you think?
