Men’s Cross Country

The varsity men’s cross country team kicked off their season with an overall dual meet record of 3-1.

The team started off their conference season with a win over GBN in a dual meet, placing third out of 19 teams at the Crystal Lake Invite, and second out of 18 teams at the Warren invite; it was the highest they’ve placed at Warren in years.

According to co-captain David O’Gara, their success is due to their strong team this year.

“We’ve been doing really well this season and our team this year is stronger than last year’s with a [wide variety of ages]” O’Gara said.

Key runners on the varsity team include senior co-captains Peter Westerfield and Dan Weathers; juniors Charlie Castelli, Alex Jackman, and O’Gara; and sophomores Colin Burrowes and Henry Dickson.

“They’re all hard working kids that are willing to run seven to eight miles a day and the team has great leadership this year with our three captains,” Hasenstein said.

Though the team is cohesive, they have been working on running together as a pack.

According to Westerfield, O’Gara leads the pack as one of the faster runners, but the team’s aim is to work together for the entire race.

“We’ve been trying to pack up to work together to help us move forward in the rankings,” Westerfield said.

According to Weathers, throughout the entire the season, the ultimate goal of  the season has been to qualify for State.

“We know that we have a chance to go to State, and as the season goes on we keep having hope,” Weathers said. “[I think] that we can get to State because of how much depth and how close our times are.”

The men’s team has been improving annually and State has become more of a reality this year, according to Jackman.

“The focus is on finishing at the top half of our conference and hopefully sending some individuals down to the State meet,” Hasenstein said.

Women’s Cross Country

The varsity women’s cross country team started off their season at the Fenton Invitational with co-captain Mollie McMahon and freshman Anne Brennan in the top 60 runners. Brennan also placed fourth individually in the Wauconda Invite.

According to McMahon, the team is still transitioning from losing some of their top runners but are doing their best to adjust.

“We haven’t been [running as fast as we would like to], but we’re strong this year and our coaches are really trying to get us into a team mentality,” McMahon said.

According to Coach Frederick Kocian, the team has improved a lot since the beginning of the season.

“The girls are very competitive and as the practices get more difficult, they respond by doing well in meets,” Kocian said.

Key runners on the varsity team include co-captains McMahon and Melissa Bastanipour; juniors Jamie Studenroth and Jamie Vear; sophomore Emily Wyland; and freshmen Rose O’Grady, Ali Campbell, and Brennan

According to Bastanipour, the team has four returning varsity runners and some talented freshmen that will help them qualify for Sectionals.

“We’ve got some great talent and our strength is in our returning varsity runners,” Bastanipour said.

The GBS team is consistently in the middle of the rankings, neither at the top nor bottom, but according to Studenroth, they are working on packing to reach the top.

“We run the first mile or two together to keep pace, which we run strong, but we’re especially working on getting strong on the second mile,” Studenroth said.

According to Brennan, one of their main goals is to just go through the season as a cohesive unit while breaking individual goals.

“For the rest of the season, the whole team just wants to stay in a pack during all of the meets so we can push each other to decrease our times,” Brennan said.

Their ultimate of all of the varsity cross country  goals this season is to qualify from Regionals to Sectionals and finish at the top half of their conference.

“As the season goes on, the girls get more competitive and we’re aiming to get in the top five teams of our conference,” Kocian said.