Rebels revive XC team for 2023 season

Head Coach: Jay Beichley

For the first time since 2013, Gladbrook-Reinbeck will have an independent cross country program running meets this season. The Rebels will be under the direction of Jay Beichley, who ran for the Rebels from 2004-08 before the program shared with Grundy Center starting in 2015. 

“I’m excited for the opportunity to be able to pour into young students and help them grow as individuals and teammates,” Beichley said. “We’ll be thinking about how I can blend some of the old traditions that I had experiences with in GR XC with the start of GR having their own XC program once again. This summer, we had team runs available for the kids to get together and get some good mileage on their bodies.”

The girls team will start out small with three girls currently out. Senior Xandra Anderson will be the only returning runner from GCGR last season. Freshmen Mileigh Martinelli and Sandra Larsen join Anderson for a trio Beichley hopes will continue to grow.

“One thing I can say about Xandra is that she always gives her best and has a great attitude,” Beichley said. “There will be plenty of learning and growing to be done with our freshmen.”

The boys will have just enough members to score as a team this season. Senior Alex Jones, junior Devin Wrider, junior Kaden Kaufman and junior Chris Utterback all have experience from previous seasons with GCGR. They’ll add freshman Caleb Bowser to give them the five members they need to put up a score. 

“Most of these boys have experience and that will help,” Beichley said. “I look forward to these guys pushing and challenging each other to improve all season. The student leadership aspect revealed itself in the summer work that was put in. The kids that are wanting to improve showed up and put in the work in the summer when there are so many other things that a kid could be doing in the summer.”

The Rebels will run virtually the same schedule as last season, which will pit them against their NICL conference rivals in a majority of their meets. Several girls and boys NICL teams qualified for State last season, so running against them in Beichley’s mind is the best way to develop the program and be competitive in time for the conference meet in October. 

“There is so much to be gained and learned by running XC,” Beichley said. “One of the main focuses I have in coaching cross country is to take advantage of this sport as an opportunity to grow and develop students into strong men and women. In my opinion, a few important attributes to succeed in life are endurance, self-discipline, and strong character. So one of my goals is to give my runners the opportunity to grow in their character, self-discipline, and endurance. We do that through working hard in practice, setting goals for meets, looking to improve times, and encouraging their teammates. I want a kid who runs XC for GR to finish the season feeling more confident in who they are and in their ability to do challenging things including being able to deal with and work through perceived failure.” 

Gladbrook-Reinbeck cross country will open their season at Marshalltown Community College on Thursday, Aug. 24.