For those who aren’t involved in Cross Country at North, the leather jug is most likely an unfamiliar term. The leather jug is more than just a jar made of cattle hide; it’s a team challenge.

“One of my good friends is the coach at Olathe North, and a couple years ago I found [the leather jug] at a thrift store,” Cross Country Coach Aaron Davidson said, “It’s just a team challenge that we made between us and [Olathe North].” 

Each year they pick a race from the season, and whichever team wins gets the leather jug. 

“Only the boys race, we don’t really have anything for the girls right now,” Davidson said, “But that’s just because our boys teams are fairly similar, about the same level, so that made it the easiest.”

The SMN Cross Country team did not win the leather jug this year, but that does not deter them from looking forward to next year’s race.

Cross Country also had regionals on Saturday, Oct. 24.

“We wanted to get both teams into state, top three teams qualify out of regionals and we were fourth on both sides so we barely missed it,” Davidson said. “Even though we were fourth instead of third, we’ve still had a really good year.”

There was one student to qualify for state, senior Trevor Maxville, who qualified last year as well.

Maxville placed third at regionals with a time of 16:13, and placed 11th with a time of 16:51 at a state competition Saturday Oct. 31 in Augusta.