With the expectation of tough competition already anticipated from their first year in 6A, the Lady Scots Cross Country team had to step up and work as a team to compete against familiar rivals and claim their traditional participation in state.

The workouts are composed of different sets of skills repeated each week. Monday and Wednesday usually incorporate speed or hill work and shorter distances rather than long. On Tuesday, the focus is on a long, aerobic run where the girls go up to ten miles around White Rock Lake. And Thursday is a pre-meet run that is four to five miles long with stretching and sprints in between.

“My favorite workout is ten mile Tuesdays because you get to be with your friends and talk while leisurely jogging around the lake,” junior Maggie Williams said. “My favorite meet has been Marcus II because I ran with junior Rachel Read and senior Madison Womble most of the way and we pushed each other.”

Various venues for practices include T.P. Hill and Big Thicket on White Rock Lake, Norbuck Park and Flag Pole Hill, which are all within a mile of each other. Norbuck and Flag Pole are common for hill workouts because of the terrain, and White Rock is a paved road for Tuesday and Thursday aerobic runs. To make transportation to these distant locations easier, every girl is assigned to a carpool.

“I like the seniors a lot this year,” sophomore Meredith Denby said. “They are really friendly and my carpool is really great. We have two seniors, Kendall Deitch and Laurel Foster, and they are really sweet. They drive me around places a lot even when it’s not cross country season, and it’s great having upper classmen being there for me in the halls.”

The 2015 slogan is “So Far So Good” and the senior captains are Hope McLaughlin, Meredith Whalen, Madison Womble, Clare Obenchain, Katie Yeager and Claire Cowie. The team is smaller this year with 143 people and the morning team has only one returning runner.

As a new year brings new people to the team, freshmen rose to the occasion and claimed varsity spots. Thus far, six freshmen have run in either elite varsity or varsity and scored points for the team.

The top runners vary each week due to injuries and illnesses, and as more runners get the chance to run in the varsity division, the more the team has to learn to unite the group. Senior Hope McLaughlin continues as the number one runner and first place finisher every meet. Senior Brooke Benson began running in varsity for the first time. Juniors Sophie Schott, Emma Parker, Olivia Scott, Stephanie Mara and Kara Fronterhouse all continued on varsity from the previous two years, but not all are able to run each week. The number of sophomore runners has increased because of track runners that joined cross country for their first year. Anna Beecherl, Holland Wiles, Olivia Aasheim and Brooke Foy continued on varsity from their freshman year and Jordyn Kaplan and Haley Gatt joined as varsity runners from track. Freshmen Maddy Stephens, Julia Helton, Ashley Booe, Alex Davey, Sophie Hung and Libby Kinahan claim varsity spots their first year on the team.

This past weekend at the Marcus 1 invitational, the team came back for tough competition once again. While they do not usually repeat courses in the same year, the Marcus II invitational was relocated here because of poor course conditions. As the previous meet, the Varsity and JV were divided into two teams, each with an elite group that ran first. The elite varsity placed 2^nd overall, with five out of seven team members placing in the top 20. The varsity placed first and elite JV girls placed first, despite rough weather situations, including a downpour, thunder and lightning. While the JV division was running, bystanders were relocated off the course to take shelter from the storm and the rest of the team was huddled under a pavilion.

The weeks leading up to district on October 15 are vital for training, and the standard is to win all three races, which has happened every year before. Runners focus on making passing grades and staying injury free, so that they can run in their last race of the season.