Warhawks girls cross country excited for season to start

With the season about to start for the West Fork Warhawks girls cross country team, head coach Laura Huber said that the team will have seven runners on the varsity squad which will allow them to score as a team.

“I have two returning seniors, a returning sophomore, and I am excited to see how they do,” Huber said. “We just had a mock meet to get some times and a few of our girls already ran a faster time than last year or matched their fastest time from last year.”

With how some members of the team are already running faster than they did last year, Huber said that she is hoping to see some personal records or PRs from the team during their first couple of meets this year.

“I am also excited to see how we place as a team as we haven’t been able to do that in a few years,” Huber said. “So that will be exciting to see where we place in our conference and how we stack up against other teams in the area.”

With having a full team, Huber said the runners are excited about the idea that they will be able to score as a team.

“They have just been very positive this season,” Huber said. “Our practices have been pretty intense and I feel like the boys coach and we practice together and we have really been pushing the kids pretty hard this year and they have done great with it.”

During practices, Huber said the team has been working on their pacing.

“We are trying to hit that six minute mile pace,” Huber said. “That is what a lot of our workouts are geared towards. Whether it is a track workout or a long run, we are just trying to hit that pace and they might not hit it. But just trying to shoot for it at every practice.”

There are multiple runners who can have a successful year for the Warhawks this season.

“Evelyn Hitzhusen has looked strong all summer; she has been putting the work running,” Huber said. She has been keeping up with the boys that we run with and just really setting a pace for the other girls to follow. Tarah Ruckdashel she is a returning senior and I am excited to see how she is doing as she has pushing herself and being a good leader and really helping the underclassmen as we have three freshmen coming in that will be on varsity and the upperclassmen have done a good job of helping them out.”

As the season moves along, Huber said one thing she would like to see from her runnersis to keep getting their times down.

“I would love to see them reach those goals by midseason that would be perfect,” Huber said. “Just keep cutting those times down that way it puts them in a good spot to compete at districts and the ultimate goal is to get to state. We had a few girls that were very close last year.”

The team’s next meet is on the road on Sept. 10 at Belmond Country Club, at 5 p.m.