The loss of six varsity seniors that finished in 8th place at state last year will not be a challenge for the Cross Country team.

“We’ll need more people to step up on the team. We all have to work hard in practice, and run competitively together at meets,” senior captain James Morse said.

Winning the Parkway Quad, the Suburban South Conference and competing well at state are the team’s goals.

“We have about 20 freshman this year. Many of them are already competitive runners, which is great this early in the season. As far as varsity goes, we all run our workouts pretty close together in time, so hopefully, that means we’ll do the same in competition,” junior captain Andrew Osborne said.

The Parkway Quad, the team’s first meet, will be hosted by Parkway West at Living Word Church with all the Parkway team’s competing against each other.

“Our biggest strength as a team is that we have enough guys close enough in ability to be able to run in packs,” Coach Kevin John said.

However, according to John, the team needs to work on being committed and being mentally tougher.

“The days you don’t want to work are the days where you need to work the hardest,” Osborne said.

Injury is a major setback for the team right now, with at least ten injured freshman, and Osborne out for two weeks with an ankle sprain.

“I need to learn to be patient with my injury. I also need to be open to the idea of cross training since I won’t be able to run,” Osborne said.

The team has less than two weeks left until the Quad, which will take place on September 6.

“After coming back from an injury this summer, I still want to work hard to achieve my goals. I want to have a great senior year overall. Since I won’t be coming back next year, I want to finish strong and set a good example. As far as specific goals go, I’d like to run a sub-17 minute 5k,” Morse said.