Last season, the girls cross country team placed fifth at Districts, and only senior Meg Nicholson and junior Mollie Rogan advanced to the Sectional and State meet. Rogan placed 24th at the State meet.

Rogan is now a senior, and her accomplishments from last season are now motivating the rest of the team this year.

“Having Mollie be the only returning State runner this year kind of pushes the rest of the team to work harder to improve their times and help go farther into the postseason as a team,” senior Sydney Linsenbardt said.

Linsenbardt is only in her second year of running cross country, but she has many goals for both herself and the team.  

“One of our main goals this year would be to place top four at Districts as a team, so we can move forward to Sectionals,” Linsenbardt said. “My personal goal is just to stay healthy throughout the season and hopefully end the season with a new personal record.”

Linsenbardt sees lots of potential in the new team, and she looks forward to seeing all the runners accomplish their goals.  

“I’m just excited to see what we do as a team this year,” Linsenbardt said. “We have a fresh start with some young, new runners and strong returning runners, so it will be fun to see how everyone does.”

Girls cross country’s next meet is Sept. 16 at Sioux Passage Park.