Sports
N the Red
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Racing to replace Boys XC looks to reload after the graduation of seniors Andrew Haughey
haughand000@hsestudents.org
W
ith a large number of seniors who graduated in June, the boys cross country team prepared sophomore and junior runners to step into a role of leadership earlier than they may have expected. he small number of seniors on this year s team makes it di cult for those in that small group to execute leadership on the varsity level in the same way as years past. Senior Drew Smith said being one of the only senior runners on the team made it more di cult to lead the team than last season, when the team had nine seniors on the varsity roster. Comparatively, there are two seniors on this year’s varsity roster. “I’m one of the few runners who has seen all of the postseason courses and run on them,” Smith said. “It’s hard having to let the others know what is coming up without any help from any other experienced seniors.” Sophomore Nick Pulos felt that the expectations for this season’s team were different, but not in a negative way. ne of the runners tasked with replacing senior talent lost last year, Pulos said he believed the team was heading in the right direction. I feel like the team has definitely stepped up our game from last year,” Pulos said. Another runner assigned with the task of replacing lost seniors is junior Bailey Wilson. Wilson said the season started rough but the team is capable of stepping up their performance for the second half of the season. “I think there’s always room for improvement, but they’ve been pretty good so far,” Wilson said about the performance of varsity runners. mith said he felt as if the team s confidence was in no way affected by the loss of runners from last season because the underclassmen with a year of experience behind them had stepped up to a higher position on the team. “I feel like we still have the same end goal,” Smith said. “To come out on top.” ectionals begin ct. at endleton eights igh chool.
1 unior osh rown second place in leads a group o estfield and o les ille runners on ept at the con erence eet at rowns urg ast iddle chool e t to right sopho ore aco ierce th place in resh an rant elush th place in and unior atthew oach th place in on ept enior ean i pson th place in races past a o les ille runner at rowns urg ast iddle chool he os cross countr tea egins the race at the con erence eet Photos by Ellie Albin.
