The girl’s cross country team is off to a promising start and has high hopes for this year’s season, particularly setting their sights on another state title. 

The first race of the season, the Under the Lights Invite, showed strong “focus and consistency…starting the season off strong,” according to head coach Drew Collete. 

With many top five runners, such as Drew Muller ‘24 and Avery Hecksel ‘24 out on recruitment and taking the SAT, there were opportunities for “others to step up,” Colette said. This included sophomores Mady Baar and Catherine Schellhammer who both set new personal records, freshman Adeline Armstrong who had a strong debut despite losing a shoe in the first 400m, and junior Sadey Seyferth, who placed fifth and is looking to have an extremely promising season ahead of her.

Seyferth is second in the region, placed fourth in the Division 2 State 3200m, and is the 4x800m State Champion. She believes the team will benefit from all the hard work and bonding that happened during the preseason.

“Preseason included a bunch of hard workouts that should help us later in the season. We went to a cross-country camp and it was very beneficial for team bonding and for everyone to get to know each other more,” Seyferth said. 

Seyferth also believes the leadership of the team this year will play a huge part in the success of the group.

“The captains this year are Drew Muller, Avery Hecksel, Amelia Walchak, and MJ McGovern. They are huge role models for the team because they lead by example, showing up on time, answering questions that we may have about workouts/runs, and always being there for us,” Seyferth said. 

Seyferth hopes that the positive energy the team has carries through the whole season and the girls continue to lift each other up. 

In the meantime, the team will take things step by step with Conferences, Regionals, and eventually States. Their next meet is September 7 at the Riverside course against Grand Rapids Christian, D1 Forest Hills Central and Northern, and Byron Center

“The Riverside course can be very fast if the ground is not wet, so it should be a fun day of racing for the boys and the girls!” Coach Colette said.