Girls cross country had a strong finish to their season at their last conference meet Tuesday Oct.18th. They placed in a solid second place just ten points behind their biggest rivals Grand Rapids Christian. Another solid second place goes to Kate O’Connell ‘18 who placed second out of 172 runners.

“We were a little upset at the end of the meet because Christian beat us but the upside to the meet was that 5 of us got all conference out of the 12 spots so that was exciting,” O’Connell said.

Along with O’Connell, Audrey Whiteside ‘19, Sarah Cannon ‘18, and Margaret Coney ‘20 got all conference. Also, Eliza Loeks ‘19 received honorable mention. Although this was the end of the whole team’s season, the state team has been chosen and they will continue to work hard. Coach Nick Hopkins chose the state team which is composed of 15 runners.

“We have a blend of freshmen through seniors that’s kind of nice. We have people that have been on the state team before, which is helpful for those that haven’t,” Hopkins said. “I’m very pleased with the mix and we have some great seniors on their as well, with having success in the past they can show young runners what to do.”

First, the team has regionals which qualifies them for states and they have to place first or second to qualify as a team. After that whoever didn’t run at regionals on the state team will compete at an open race at Allendale.

“Based on the qualifications and everything for that race hopefully we will be going to states and that will be Nov. 5 which is the last meet,” O’Connell said, “The practices start to get more quality over quantity leading up to states.”

The team has the next couple of weeks to prepare for the upcoming races. “As a team we obviously want to beat our rivals on Plymouth and get close to Otsego because they are the champs.” Whiteside, one of the state team runners, said.

“For training in cross country what you’re trying to do is peak towards the end of the season. So, the last couple of weeks we try to do more quality workouts and give them a little bit more rest,” Hopkins said. “It’s also an opportunity to focus on half the team, because there’s less people, so they get a little bit more attention. Ideally what you want to do is to try to peak and run fast and rest them up a little bit in the last couple of weeks.”