The 2018-2019 cross country season has finally begun. With four of the seven top runners from last year graduated, the boys’ team takes on the season with many new varsity runners.
Taylor Marshall teaches social studies and is also the boys cross country coach.
“The current boys top seven runners are five seniors, it’s pretty senior heavy, they are off to a pretty good start,” Marshall said.
The boys have had a steady season so far regarding practices, their first race being Aug 18. Many sophomores and freshman ran in the race and beat multiple other varsity teams.
“The boys team expectation is to continue either being the top ten boys team in the state or better,” Marshall said.
With a majority of the top seven boys last year graduating, the team is definitely different.
“Although we may not have the kid that’s going to go and win top ten in the state, we have a group that’s going to be very close together that could win the race,” Marshall said.
This year’s varsity team has the potential to succeed just as well as last year’s. The freshman boys team is also looking good, possibly with the capability to win the freshman county race.
The girls’ cross country team has many new freshmen running varsity.
“The girls’ team has many new members and have shown steady improvement within the last few years,” Marshall said.
With four out of the seven top runners on the girls team being freshman, they have much talent in store for them in the future.
The freshman girls came in and immediately started impressing the coaches. This past weekend, the girls had a very good race and placed runner up to a good team from Westfield. The girls’ freshman team hopes to win county as well, but as many of the freshmen girls run varsity, they will have to decide which race they run in. This displays the potential for the rest of the season and hopefully the future of the cross country program.
This is largest team in the athletic department with almost 140 runners. The team as a whole has been going through changes with the new runners.
Practice is still very similar for the boys as it has been in previous years, but the girls have been including things like pilates and yoga to their weekly practices.
