The Northmont Cross Country team started training for the season in early June. So far, they have had four meets. One of the latest meets was the Eaton Invitational at Fort St. Clair Park. This course is said by the runners to be fairly difficult, resulting in slower times.

“We were down a good runner so I felt like I contributed a lot to the team, even with the hilly course,” said sophomore Sam Diller. “I did better than I expected.”

One of Northmont’s runners, sophomore Jenna Stowers, injured herself during the girls D1 varsity race. As Stowers was running, she tripped and fell down a hill, injuring her hip in the process. She was picked up by a Gator, an emergency medical response unit. Stowers will be running in the next meet. In the end, the girls scored fourth out of 6 teams with 89 points.

“I am good now, but when it happened and throughout the weekend it was sore and very bruised,” said Stowers.

The boys went on to get second out of 11 teams with 74 points.

“I wasn’t the only one who went and raced competitively and it really showed! I’m excited to see how the rest of the season goes for us,” said senior John Pierron.

Not only did the boys get 2nd overall, but senior Gage Beireis finished first place out of 81 runners with a time of 17:01.

“When you have such a good coach along with a great team, it’s hard not to succeed,” said Beireis. “But in all, it’s all about the teams success and how we can compete with the big and competitive schools.”

Later on in the day, there was an open race which one Northmont runner participated in.

“I was nervous because I don’t usually run but with my teammates cheering me on, I felt more excited,” said sophomore Lindsey Dresnek.

Overall, the Northmont Cross Country team did better than initially expected.

“I feel like the team just keeps improving. We still have a lot of work to do if we want to get out of Districts to Regionals as a team,” said Beireis. “As for myself, I’ve been giving the workouts my coach has been giving me 110% and racing my hardest, but I still have more work to do as well.”

The team will be racing at Centerville on Saturday, September 23, and Fairmont on Saturday, September 30.