East Grand Rapids Girls Cross Country is running it back this year with aspirational goals of placing well at the state competition and improving individual times.

“Our goal for our team is to get first at regionals which means beating Christian and then if we win regionals or get second we get to move on to states which is our goal,” Mady Baar ‘26 said.

Placing 6th in the state last year, the team is joining together with a new group of girls. There are a lot of new faces that are present and a lot that are going to be missed.

“I think the team doesn’t have so many goals to improve because we lost a lot of our really good runners but we would like to stay where we are and not become worse,” captain Quincy Stiffler ‘25 said. 

Looking forward, the group has a lot of important events. Not only do the big meets such as Conference or the state meet matter, but every competition counts when working towards their goal. 

“We have our MSU meet coming up along with two or three jams,” Stiffler said.

As well as those smaller meets, there are bigger competitions coming up as well. 

 “We have a meet on Saturday Sept. 7 and it’s in Baff Michigan. Regionals are in two months I think. The state meet is Nov. 2,” captain Sadey Seyferth ‘25 continued.

EGR girls XC is a powerhouse team with big goals. Make sure to support them in their upcoming season and keep a look out for the great improving runners that make up the team.