Sports and the culinary arts are two topics that rarely intertwine.

For Hays High head cross country coach Traci Hightower, baking a cake is the analogy she uses to describe what makes a strong athlete in the sport.

“There are those small ingredients that you don’t taste that are key in the baking process,” Hightower said. “Those small details are just as important as a major workout in cross country.”

For Hightower, seeing her 2017 cross country group put in the work ...