By: Reece Kothe
Eaton Cross Country Team, led by seniors Joe Stewart (13), Marcus Longwell (13) and Jill Martin (13), will strive to return to state competition seeking to finish better than last year’s eighth place finish. Pre-state already lingers around the corner as the athletes battle for coveted varsity running positions. This Friday the team will compete in Colorado Springs for the season-opening meet. This newly introduced course will test the team on all their strengths and create a fierce, competitive atmosphere for the runners to find their stride and place on the team. After losing Cash Merritt, one of Eaton’s star runners last year, the 13-member guy’s team hopes to regroup and work hard to make up for the loss. On the guy’s team freshman, Alex Adams (16), sophomore Triple Wadsworth (15), and junior Reece Kothe (14) must put forth their full potential as the young talent on the team and three of the more talented runners on the varsity team to make up for the loss of Merritt. All the runners on the guys team must run consistently in order to even hope for state as a team.
Girls team drawing on freshman talent
With the loss of several runners, including state qualifiers Leah and Kayla Cheney, the girls team with only three runners will be led by senior, and last year’s state qualifier, Martin. Because of the lack of participants all runners will run varsity. This includes freshmen Karalee Kothe (16), and Kaitlyn Carrey (16), who must strive to run their best. As a whole, head coach Josh Jeffery said,” the team hopes to make the state competition as well as grow as a team and individuals both as athletes and as people.”