Off With a Running Start

Off With a Running Start

A mid- season update of the team that claims over 10% of the student body

 

The Girls’ Cross Country team has 53 practices, 10 meets, and 10 team meetings this season. Overall it equals a lot of running, planning and hydrating, but the team wouldn’t have it any other way.

After only three weeks of practice, the competed in their first meet on August 22nd at Norbuck Park. The meet was a relay meet and each school divided their teams into smaller teams of four. Each runner raced 1.5 miles, so the total distance raced by each team was six miles. The HP Varsity team placed 5th with a time of 37:40. The team consisted of Hope McLaughlin (12), Sophie Schott (11), Emma Parker (11) and Maddy Stephens (9). Mclaughlin ran the course in 9 minutes, Parker and Schott both got a time of 9:27, and Stephens got 9:45.

The team’s first 5k meet of the season was on August 29th in Denton at the Marcus I meet. There were so many teams at the meet, that the Varsity and JV were split into two categories- elite and open.

“It’s super rare for JV and varsity races to be split in half. I didn’t like not having the whole JV team run together, but it was also nice that the race wasn’t crazy crowded,” senior Claire Cowie said.

Saturday, September 5th, the team participated in the Southlake Carroll Invitational. The varsity team came in 5th and the JV team came in 4th. The team placed 5th overall in the meet with 25 new personal records set, despite it being a new course.

“This was my first time to run the course, and I actually really liked it. It was relatively flat and wasn’t too hot, so that helped,” sophomore Meredith Denby said.

The team competed in the Marcus II meet on September 19th. The runners faced heavy rain while racing, yet the team placed the best it had all season. The Elite Varsity and Elite JV Girls both placed 2nd, and the Open Varsity and Open JV placed 1st. The Elite varsity consisted of Hope McLaughlin (12), Jordyn Kaplan (9), Maddy Stephens (9), Alex Davey (9), Emma Parker (11), Haley Gatt (10) and Olivia Scott (11).

On September 26th, the team competed in the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival in Mckinney. Varsity runner Emma Parker (11) placed 17th overall and got a personal record of 19:48.

There is only three more meets the entire team will compete in before the U.I.L. Region II Meet and the U.I.L. State Meet where only select runners have the opportunity to compete. Whether the runners are reflecting on the great season so far or looking forward to all the season still holds, everyone is taking advantage of the time left.