Last season’s Olympus cross country team was a strong one with some stellar performers. Some of those top runners graduated, leaving some holes on the team that head coach Christ Humbert had to fill. 

Humbert found some athletes to step up as leaders this season. One was already on the team but had battled injuries, and one came from hundreds of miles away. 

On the girls squad, Adria Favero, just a sophomore, has been a pleasant surprise. After sitting out the track season with an injury this past spring as a freshman, Favero has come back with a vengeance, battling through pain and recovery to make an important contribution to the cross country team this season. It wasn’t easy for Favero to sit on the sidelines and watch her teammates compete last spring, but now she’s a force in cross country meets. 

“[Favero is] a rockstar,” Humbert said. “[Missing the track season] was incredibly hard for her, as she couldn’t run at all for about two months. She worked through it, though, and looks to be stronger than ever.”

Nothing has come easy to Favero, however. She said coming back and competing at a high level has required a tremendous amount of hard work and determination. She said she has learned a lot by persevering and is grateful to be a part of the Titans’ team. 

“Coming back from my injury has been really hard for me,” she said. “It’s hard to come back and realize that maybe you don’t have the same fitness as before. Those first few runs had me wondering if I would ever get back to my old fitness. There were a lot of tears, and it was hard to believe that I could come back and succeed again. Little by little, I was able to increase my training, and those first few races were nerve-racking. But I am really happy with how I have come back so far.”

Favero has been running since she was young but didn’t take the sport seriously until the seventh grade when she joined a club team called the Wolfpack. A friend, who would eventually become her teammate, also urged her to keep running. 

“Whenever I would watch cross country races when I was little, it looked so fun,” she said. “My friend Sofia Jourdon on the team invited me to do some races where I really fell in love with running.”

Not only does she enjoy the thrill of running and competing, but Favero is grateful to have met good friends and developed strong unity with her teammates. She loves her experiences as a Titan too. 

“I love being able to push myself in the races,” she said. “I love running through my neighborhood and exploring. And I love the girls I meet while running and getting to know them. They are the sweetest girls you will ever meet. The Olympus team is so much fun! It is so different from my old team Wolfpack where we all lived far apart and went to different schools because you make so many amazing friends that you see at school and spend so much time with these amazing teammates.”

Just as her injury taught her how to persist through challenges and opposition, the sport of cross country itself requires Favero to push on when things are difficult. She said that positive attitude and grit are strengths. She also makes it a point to be friends with everyone on the team and to be inclusive. 

“I think a strength that I have is perseverance,” she said. “When things get hard I push through and do my best. Something I contribute to the team is trying to make us bond, I like to try and talk to different people, so everyone has a friend and everyone on the team is so amazing at making sure everyone feels included.”

Favero said she wants to “have fun” and push herself. She wants to stay healthy the rest of her career too. 

“To achieve my goals, I need to listen to my body and take care of any pains coming on to avoid injury and work hard in my workouts and get good training in and also to make sure I am keeping it fun and enjoying it,” Favero said. “It’s also really important for me to trust that God has a plan for me and whatever happens in my race happens for a reason. I know that I can trust in him, and praying before my races helps to calm my nerves.”

On the boys team, a newcomer from the Lone Star State has made a big impact. 

Will Towers is a transplant from Texas. He moved here with his family after his father retired from the military. Towers has enjoyed the change of venue and has nothing but good things to say about Utah and Olympus. 

“The best part of being on the Olympus team is the people there,” he said. “They never hesitated to include me with all of their activities, even when I had just barely joined them. I really like the environment both the teammates and the coaches create; it is very positive and motivating as I go throughout the season. I received a lot of help in many ways during my transition to running at Olympus, with many friendly and helpful teammates, as well as a plan to help me adjust to running in the challenges presented in Utah: altitude, dryness, temperatures.”

Towers started running as a seventh grader after a friend encouraged him to give it a try. He said he finds it satisfying to see his improvement as his race times decrease. He also finds it gratifying to exert himself to the limit and see the fruits of those efforts. 

“I find one of my main strengths as a runner is my ability to push myself as much as I can, both in training and in races,” Towers said. “Even on days where I am not feeling the best, I put forth all of my effort towards success.”

In Texas, Towers ran for a small school in what he called “very localized races.” The competition has been more difficult at Olympus, but it’s a challenge he has embraced. 

As the season winds down, Towers is hoping to keep getting better and to stay healthy. He wants the team to stay unified and close. 

“My main goal is to stay consistent with my training throughout the season and to see improvement through all of it,” he said. “I would also like to avoid being injured. As for the team, I hope that we can all continue to grow closer to each other as the season goes on, I run harder because of it.”

Towers is considering whether to run cross country in college or pursue an opportunity to play in the band at a university. He intends to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first. λ