Individuals have a sport they dearly love to participate in or just enjoy watching. Sports can be a calming, therapeutic stress-reliever for many or just a hobby to keep one occupied. For me, I like to run to get my mind off things or, if the weather does not agree with me, just workout to keep me busy. I’m sure that many others feel the same way I do and that is why my friends and I joined Cross-Country. 

Cross-Country is a sport where a person runs long distances competitively against other schools. Sometimes we aren’t particularly in the mood to run or the workouts are too painful; going through it all with teammates a person can call a family makes it that much less painful. This year we had a lot of freshmen come in and try out cross-country in which some decided to join and others decided it wasn’t the right sport for them. Luckily, we had more new runners stay then leave. Baylie Bryan, a fellow teammate and one of two seniors this year, said, “I think we’ll definitely be successful this season since we have a lot of girls in the top 5 and 10 near each other. We all step up when we know people are slacking.” She is also hoping that we will be able to win county for our fourth consecutive year. 

The Lewis Cass Girls XC Team had its first meet at Logansport this past Saturday. It was a rough meet, but all the girls who ran did an outstanding job and were able to finish their first meet this season. “I felt the meet went pretty well for my team and I but there is definitely room for improvement for everyone,” said Mckenna Leight who is a sophomore runner. We all did not necessarily get the times or placing we had wanted to but this allows us for more room to improve and shock the other teams at the next race. Delaney Zeck, junior runner, stated that she was glad to see our hard work from the summer pay off. Zeck also included that, “When we all show up at the start of a race, we work as a team, but at the end of the race, we finish as a family. Our team is very large and as soon as an athlete finishes the race, they are looking to find and support their other teammates.” 

Coaches at the meet were running around frantically trying to encourage their runners to close the gap between them and an opponent. Coach Rush said, “ We are growing as a team with 25 runners and 5 managers. This is a sign that we have a positive team and girls want to be a part of something special and work together. It is always good to get the first meet in to get over the first meet jitters and then learn from it to improve for the next meet. Placing fourth out of 14 schools at the Jacob Graf Invitational was good but we have high goals and need to come back stronger for Saturday’s county meet. I believe the girls will be ready to run on Saturday.”

All the girls believe it will be a successful season this year and according to Zeck, “We are some of the most hard working girls in the school. We are always pushing each other to do better, and that is why I love the team.” The girls in this year’s team are closely bonded and that is what Bryan loves most about the team. Zeck also statedll,“Cross country has made me physically and mentally stronger in all aspects of life when things get tough, I have learned that I can always dig deeper.”

In my opinion, I think that we are going to have a great season because of how dedicated and hard-working we are. All the hours and training we have put in will definitely be shown off in whatever we do whether it be XC related or not. I am immensely proud of all the girls and could not be more grateful for what ALL the coaches have done for us. Coach Guy, Hall, Ramer, Hendrick, Elpers, Garland, and Rush have all put so much sweat, time, and effort for us to become better athletes and people. Emily Tigler, senior runner, thinks that “We will make it far in the season,” and that the team did well this last meet. Don’t forget to come out this Saturday for our county meet at Logan!