Sophomore Parker MacKay was the game-changer in Mountain Vista High School's surprise win at the NXN Southwest Regional. The usual No. 4 runner for Vista Nation led his team with a 17th place finish in Arizona, which counted for eight points in the team scoring. Those points would be crucial as Mountain Vista won the region meet with 108 points - just one point ahead of Timpanogos (Alpha T-Wolf TC) and Lone Peak High School, who both scored 109 points. The win is significant for national standings as the Southwest region nabbed two of four at-large bids between Lone Peak and American Fork (4th, 121 points). Mountain Vista is the second boys team from Colorado to ever qualify for Nike Cross Nationals.
1. What was your hardest workout this season?
That would be the 3 by a mile at race pace! Mostly because we had another team there working out with us so it felt more like a competition.
2. What was your team's (or your own) biggest challenge this season?
One of my biggest challenges was breaking my wrist over the summer. I lost a lot of training that had to be made up during the season.
3. How do you balance enjoying the nationals experience while still focusing on competing?
We are going there for a race and so we need to stay focused on our main priority. But on the other hand we want to have fun and enjoy having this experience with eachother. Having fun and keeping a positive attitude allows us as a team to not have bad nerves which is good.
4. How do you manage peaking for the state meet vs. peaking for regionals/nationals?
This year we worked hard for state but our main goal was to do good at regionals and make it to nationals. State was a big event that we trained really hard for, but in the long run our training was for regionals and Nationals. We didn't want to burn ourselves out before regionals, so after state we kept training the same mileage to keep our bodies fit but not overworked.
5. If you could be a Voodoo Donut, what kind would you be and why?
Mango tango doughnut because are team loves to dance. We got some good moves and go crazy to our favorite songs. We have a couple of theme songs that we have enjoyed over the season that we can't help dancing to.
6. Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?
One hundred duck-sized horses because that would be one huge duck to deal with.