Cross country gives state a run for the money

Christian Lewis, Reporter

For the first time since 2010 both the boys and girls cross country teams made it to the state meet. Both teams performed exceptionally in their races. The boys placed 16th overall, and the girls placed seventh.

“We went into the state meet knowing there were seven teams that could win it, we were one of those teams,” Coach Joel Wingard said about the girls team.

In the time leading up to the meet both teams were hard at work. This year the girls went undefeated in dual meets, and placed in every invitational meet they were invited to.  Running so well allowed them to clinch the league championship for the fourth year in a row. However, when districts came they fell to second place behind Prairie by only three points.

On the other hand, the boys took a longer route to the same result. They had a rocky start to the season placing fourth in the league with three wins and two losses in dual meets. But by the time districts came around, they were able to work out all the kinks and secure the fifth spot, giving them a chance at the big time, state, for the first time in three years.

When the state meet finally rolled around both teams were ready to give it their all.

“Its kinda scary, that first race at state, but they did very well. It was great just to be there,” Wingard said.

In the end, it was junior Sarah Manning, sophomore Emma Jones and senior Mckenzie Bravo who secured the seven position for the girls, placing 29th, 30th and 34th. On the boys side, sophomore Dominic Lauer and senior Nolan Winter placed 80th and 108th leading to their 16th spot at state.

While neither team placed as high as they had hoped for, they believe what it really comes down to is the experience.

“A lot of people are going to be better with another year under their belts,” Manning said.

Wingard said he is expecting big things from this fairly young team in the next couple years.

“It was a fun year,” Wingard said. “We accomplished a lot of things and laid down the groundwork to get even better next year.”