After the girls cross-country team’s second place victory at districts, which took place on Halloween, the team advanced to state at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

To prepare themselves for the competition, the cross-country team has been tirelessly training throughout the season. 

“We’ve been training for months,” junior Julia Donnelly said. “We have summer running which prepares us for the actual season where we then train even harder to continue on to state.”

The runners would practice running on school days with different types of workouts as well, which they feel has helped them. 

“On the road to state, I feel like the team overall improved,” Donnelly said. “We changed because we grew closer.”
The bond of the teammates continued to grow as they progressed through the season and spent more and more time with each other. They used each other to push through and found motivation in one another, which got them through districts and to state. However, there were some negative impacts that their close bond couldn’t help. 

“I had an injury progressing at the end of the season, and by the time I got to state, it had gotten too bad,” senior Mckenna Jaquin said. “I ran, but after the first 100 meters it had gotten too bad for me to run normally, so I limped/ran the rest of the way. I was sad I couldn’t run to my full potential and my season was over, but I was more sad it was my last time running with the team. However, I was proud of all we had accomplished to get into this place.”

Many hardships came to the team on the road to state—dealing with COVID, injuries and everything in between—but the team pushed through it all. 

“I had my best time of the season at state,” senior Lilly Nix said. “It felt really good to look at how far the team had come from the beginning of the season to the point we were at at state.”

The team’s close bond created memories and passion throughout their season, making state bittersweet for the seniors, Mia Reed, Mckenna Jaquin, Jessie Donnelly, Lilly Nix and Mckenna Deckleman, and their fellow teammates who looked up to them. 

“It was very sentimental at state because it was my last year running with the seniors,” Donnelly said. 

A great bond was formed between the girls this year through the troubling times, and though they didn’t perform at state how they wished, it didn’t change their views on how the team performed overall. 

“Even though we didn’t win,” Jaquin said, “we are all winners in my eyes.”