High school sports: North Salem cross country embracing virtual meets this fall

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down all high school sports competition since March, but one Salem-Keizer program is taking advantage of technology this fall to simulate a real event.

The North Salem cross country program has fully embraced a new app provided by Athletic.net, a cross country and track and field website, to have its runners participate in virtual meets while the OSAA shutdown continues during the pandemic.

“My entire varsity girls returning team will be doing it, and I know of about five or six JV girls from last year, and around seven or eight boys in total will be participating,” North Salem cross country coach Michael Herrmann said. “That’s a big chunk of our team that will be doing it.”

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The virtual meet series, which started last week, is seven weeks long, and athletes have an opportunity to qualify for an eighth week.

Athletes can run where they want, and the app will track their performance.

“It will track their distance via the GPS through the app, and it’s most beneficial when done on a repetitive cross country course, so a three-loop course for example, or even on a track,” Herrmann said. “Once they reach their distance of 5,000 meters, the app will notify them to stop. And their time is automatically submitted through the app to the event they are competing in. It’s pretty innovative.”

Herrmann believes in virtual events

Despite some interest in the program, none of the other Salem-Keizer cross country teams could confirm that any of their runners are taking part.

For Herrmann, it’s not just about the competition aspect of the virtual meets that has him excited.

“I’m a big believer in the virtual events. Their main purpose is really to create that connectiveness to their team and to one another. As far as the competitive side of things, I haven’t talked about paces, and I haven’t been intense about these at all,” said Herrmann, who led the Vikings to a fourth-place finish last season at the OSAA Class 5A girls state championships. “I think it’s great because it gives our runners that have been working out all summer an opportunity to still get some reward for three or four months of work.”

Because of the pandemic, official practice for the OSAA cross country season won’t start until Feb. 22, and competitions won’t start until March 8.

“I haven’t seen any of these athletes since August, when the OSAA moved the sports to the different times of year,” Herrmann said. “And many of the kids I haven’t seen since March 12. For me, I’m very concerned about their mental health and how they’re doing with the current situation. So I just want to make sure they know that I care what they’re doing, and that I’m encouraging them to stay fit and stay healthy.”

Pete Martini covers high school and college sports for the Statesman Journal. You can contact Pete at pmartini@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6730 and follow @PeteMartiniSJ.