Silas and Sadie Yates brought home the Berkeley Country Championship at Poor House Farm Park for Musselman High School in the 2024 Cross Country season.
Silas and Sadie, a sibling duo, said they enjoy running together. Silas has been running for three years and now, for the first time, bagged a win in his senior year.
“It was a big deal, but at the same time it wasn’t because I like to judge my performance based on how I feel at the end of the race. At Berkeley County, I definitely felt like I gave it my all and it paid off because it was a smaller race, and I was obviously one of the best runners there,” Silas said. “I just had more guts, and I used it and I won. But the first win thing, it’s nice but it was something I thought about for like 2 minutes.”
Sadie, a sophomore, has been running for two years.
“It was really fun, because it was his goal for both of us to win and it was mine, too, really. So, it was nice to be able to do that together,” said Sadie.
Though they may be siblings, they have quite different opinions on their favorite part about running cross country.
Sadie said: “The team. I think like with any other sport having the team to be like a family for you is always really nice.”
Sadie may be more on the team side of running as her favorite, whereas Silas focuses more on pushing himself to do better.
Silas said: “The feeling I get at the end of a race when I know I gave it my all and my body feels like crap and I just want to go to sleep but the mental high that you get knowing that you just did one of the hardest things physically you’ve ever done is amazing. It’s totally worth it.”
Sadie gets straight to why she runs as a sport.
“To have fun,” said Sadie.
Silas, meanwhile, had more to say: “I’ve always liked running. I ran all through middle school. I was good at it just naturally in middle school, so I just kept with it and like I said, I like that feeling after the end of the race where you know you have given literally everything you have. You couldn’t have done better. That feeling is pretty magical.”
Silas and Sadie get to share the love of running together and said they cherish this memory of sibling rivalry not only at home but in the sport, even at the price of a little awkwardness.
“The dynamic is a little weird because he is team captain and I’m used to seeing him as my brother, so to be like a person of authority is a little weird but other than that, I like it,” Sadie said.
Winning together, though? That’s priceless.
“I really like her. She likes me a little bit I think, but its fun watching her grow as a runner and as a person,” Silas said. “That was one of the things that I keep thinking about during the race was that if it could be her and I county champions together that would be pretty cool. That was more important to me than the first win.”
DiAnn Miller • Dec 5, 2024 at 2:03 pm
Congratulation, Silas and Sadie! Great job and great article! 🙂
Jackie Alexander • Dec 5, 2024 at 8:45 am
This is awesome! So proud of both of you!