Despite the loss of 20 seniors at the end of their last season, the girls’ cross country team finished the year qualifying for states, largely thanks to an especially fast group of underclassmen filling the gap and significantly contributing to the team’s success.
Losing so many top runners last year “opened the door for the younger runners on the team to step up,” senior captain Abby Weaver said. “…having a young team was challenging at first, while everyone was learning to race, but they have got it all figured out now and are becoming faster and faster.”
According to junior Emily Farabaugh the team has “about five freshmen in the top fifteen. It’s been a great learning experience for them and we are definitely going to have a strong team of experienced runners for the next couple of years. They have an abundance of positive energy and spirit, and that is really fun to see.”
One of these freshmen, Sydney Winterton, was the team’s top runner this season. “It’s really cool to be at the top of the team as a freshman because I know I can keep improving all throughout the rest of high school,” Winterton said. “It’s also really great to be in the top as a younger runner because I get the guidance of the older girls.”
Winterton consistently placed highly in the girls’ 5000 meter run throughout the season, taking fifth place at the Maymont X-Country Festival on Sept. 28 with a time of 21:49.03 and later in the season placing sixteenth at the Great American Cross Country Festival on Oct. 5 with an improved time of 19:59.60.
Because of the number of young runners, the team’s goals were “above all to build a good base of strength and speed in everyone and give new runners the experience they will need for the coming years,” senior captain Jesse Smyth said. “I think we definitely achieved both of these goals.”
To accomplish these objectives, the team started their season “working on endurance, and saved shorter speed workouts for the end of the season when everyone’s legs had the strength to handle it,” Smyth said.
“As for giving new runners experience, we had a couple freshmen and sophomores on the varsity team (top seven), and a large group just below that,” Smyth said. “We took as much as we could of this ‘varsity B’ group to large meets so that they could see what they were like in order to be prepared to race varsity in the next couple years.”
The team placed in the top five throughout the season, receiving third at the Jefferson District Meet on Oct. 23, placing fifth at the North Regional Cross Country Championship on Nov. 6, and winning the Conference Championship on Oct. 30. Additionally at the Conference Championship, nine AHS runners made the top ten.
Weaver felt that earning the title of Conference Champions was the team’s greatest victory because “both the boys’ and girls’ teams won every race, sweeping the entire meet.”
She added that this meet was “extra special because we did not race all of our top seven, which gave some of the younger girls an opportunity to race varsity.”
Before reaching these victories, the team faced defeat at one of their earlier meets, the Ragged Mountain Cup, which they had won in the past couple of years. “Having lost a lot of our fast seniors this year we started off a bit weaker,” Smyth said.
However, the team “[got] better as the season has progressed, as everyone figures out their racing strategy and increases their mileage,” Farabaugh said. “Many people have had significant improvements in time, and that encourages others and makes us all run better and have fun.”
Seven runners from the team competed at the State meet. “Unfortunately we did not place, but all the girls raced really tough!” Weaver said. “There were several PRs [personal records] and all the girls were under 22 minutes, which is huge!”
“We had a ‘young team,’” Farabaugh said, “but I think the few [upperclassmen] that remained have been role models for the underclassmen and we are going to have a fantastic future.”
