BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Racing to replace Boys XC looks to reload after the graduation of seniors

Andrew Haughey haughand000@hsestudents.org

With 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 year¼s team makes it diٻcult 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 diٻcult 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. 7ne of the runners tasked with replacing senior talent lost last year, Pulos said he believed the team was heading in the right direction.

¹I 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 team¼s 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.”

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