The miles have been put in during the summer months, and now Aberdeen Central runners are ready to see their hard work pay dividends this cross country season.

The Golden Eagles, who start their season Friday at Pierre, are poised to do big things this fall.

The boys figure to be among the favorites to win the Eastern South Dakota Conference championship.

“Within the conference it’s us and Brookings,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley.

The squad features a lot of depth. Murley pointed out that last year had the state meet scored 10 runners instead of five, the Golden Eagles, who finished fourth in the team standings, would have won the meet.

“Last year we had eight kids run under 17 minutes on the state meet course,” Murley said.

This year’s team, which has just two seniors, will be led a half dozen runners featuring Patrick Severson, Carson Urlacher, Max Nelson, Tate DeVries, Eston Foss, and Sam Schultz.

Severson, a senior, is a solid leader for the team, according to Murley.

“The goal is to have the guys going in one direction as far as goals and things like that,” Murley said, “and this group of guys are doing that.”

Murley said that all of the runners spent major time during the summer to prepare for the upcoming campaign.

“I think every year that you can circle a bad week or a bad section of your off season or your season that maybe sort of costs you at ESD time or things like that, and to this point I don’t have any circles on my practice plans,” Murley said. “They’re a good group of kids that really are on track and they want to be competitive.”

The Central girls will also be young, but have proven performers on the squad. The Golden Eagles will be led by junior Juna Ramey who was 25th at the State AA Meet last fall.

“She’s got a really awesome work ethic,” said Central girls’ coach Eric Pedersen. “She’s definitely one that she is going to work herself to try and get to goals that she’s got.”

Other main runners for the Golden Eagles this season will be sophomores Allison Brenner and Khloe Cochran, and eighth-graders Allie Novstrup and Evy Novstrup.

In addition to what happens on the course, Pedersen pays close attention to helping the runners gear up for race day as well.

“I’m big on kind of the three key things in terms of getting enough rest, getting quality nutrition, and getting enough water in you,” Petersen said. “We kind of hit hard that the hydrating doesn’t start the day of your race or the day before your race. You’ve got to build it into your routine.”

Of course Pedersen also puts in a lot of time and effort into helping plot race strategy for his runners.

“There’s so much structure and pacing and stuff like that, that goes into a cross country race. … I just love it, the way you put together a race,” Pedersen said. “There’s so much strategy involved in terms of getting out hard, or if you want to save some of that energy for later in the race, or who you’re going to get by, all of those types of things.”

Pedersen, in his second year as head coach of the Central girls, wants his members to work throughout the season in preparation for the biggest meets of the year at the end of the fall.

“As a young crew we’re here to learn, we’re here to see how some of those things fit together,” Pedersen said, “but your goals should kind of revolve around what you want to put down at ESD and the state meet.”