Girls’ cross country: Young runners make strides

Young runners boosted the team this year.

At a sports season’s end, many teams worry about the holes the seniors will leave behind as they graduate in the coming spring. The underclassmen-dominated girls’ cross country team will have one less thing to worry about.

“We were lucky to have such a huge turnout of freshmen this year,” senior co-captain Emily Williams said. “I have no doubt that we will have an amazing team in the coming years.”

The freshmen were a great asset to the team this year, and two freshmen, Christina Schlossareck and Carolyn Qi, made the varsity team and helped lead the Falcons to CCS.

“All the freshmen were really dedicated,” junior Maya Nag said. “It was nice to see them improve throughout the season.”

This dedication to improve was shown all throughout the team as every single member of the team bettered her personal records multiple times throughout the season.

“I think every member on the team PR-ed at least once,” Nag said. “It just shows how dedicated the girls on this team really are.”

While most athletes improved as the season progressed, the team faced setbacks as two of its key runners injured themselves. Williams had shin problems while junior co-captain Courtney Schlossareck, who has been recovering from knee surgery last July, was not able to fully recover to full strength.

“I was really excited for this season,” Schlossareck said. “I was really hoping that I would be able to run well and possibly have a chance at the state meet.”

Despite the setbacks, the team was seeded in sixth place entering CCS and ended up finishing in fourth place.

“We did well over the season despite our setbacks,” Williams said. “We had a lot of members step up to the plate.”