Soren Wierbicki

At the Averill Invitational held at Kensington Metro Park, sophomore Greer Nimmo runs her last 100 meters before the finish line. “It was a hard course, but it felt better this year than when I ran it last year,” Nimmo said.

The cross country team gains a new womens head coach, doubles in size and comes together stronger.

“New kids are great to have every single year. Everyone contributes to the success of the team, so having a larger team means having more people contributing towards the common cause. Many of the more experienced kids thrive when they have new kids to mentor and lead by good examples,” mens coach Jason Kerr said.

There is a total of 40 runners between the two teams. They also gained Steve Carcone as the newwomens head coach.

“Being a new coach has been one of the best experiences in my life. The girls team has been so welcoming, we work hard, have fun and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in their running career,” Carcone said.

Both teams are projected to be top five in their region nine and their chance to make it to states strong so far, according to Kerr.

“If both groups keep putting in the work together and supporting each other, things are definitely looking good for both squads to make it in the near future, if not this year,” he said.

Off the course, the team participates in team bonding, where they socialize and hang out. During the summer they attended a camp in August where they practiced and visited Leelanau, Mich, which strengthened their skills.

“The team bonding is the best part of cross country for me. The whole team is so close and it’s brought me a lot of friends,” sophomore Adeline Youngberg said.

This close knit team anticipates their strongest season in 20 years.

“The team is getting along really well this year,” Kerr said. “We’ve been really positive with our competition efforts so far. That will lead to confidence to do big things later in the season.”