By Kevin Gartman
Head Cross Country Coach
- South Hardin’s layout at Pine Lake County Club was a beautiful host site at the golf course and it was the perfect fall day for a meet. That being said, the course was brutal in terms of consistent elevation change – runners were constantly up or down rolling hills, with some steep inclines in the mix.
- Ellen Cook missed qualifying for state by one spot. I thought Ellen ran hard and came in focused and ready to roll. Her time on the course on Thursday would have qualified her in past years, but the field was highly competitive at the site with individuals this year. Proud of how she battled and grew throughout the year.
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Jusiah Wetering, left, and Kohen Holland climb one of the many hills on the Eldora course. (Marie Boulton photo). - Looking beyond Ellen, our girls team was probably projected to finish 6th based on previous race results coming in. Yet the girls were deep on a difficult course and ran really strong. For them to finish 4th, and only 6 points back from 3rd place, is a testament to the work ethic they had and how much they cared to run for each other.
- The course itself was averaging times about a minute and 40 seconds slower than an average course, so for so many girls to run as they did, they out-performed the time on the clock for sure.
- Really impressed with Camryn Brennan stepping up and finishing in the 3rd spot for the girls team. Her career has had a handful of injuries mixed in, but she truly peaked at the right time as senior year came to a close, with her three strongest races of her career to finish the season.
- Losing 6 senior girls to graduation (Alivia, Ashlee, Camryn, Faith, Lydia, and Makenna) means I’m losing a combined 32 years of cross country experience between 6 girls. This crew has been the source of a lot of joy.
- We’ll return both Ellen and Vivian Cook, Haileah Eichenberger, and I’m very excited to see a healthy Claire Erselius bounce back from injury and make her own push towards qualifying for state as well.
- With the incoming 8th grade class, we’ll have a lot of fun, and should be competitive as well.
- On the boys side, again, the clock doesn’t tell the story for how well we tackled the course. We were strong across the board on hills and found ways to pass other runners on the most difficult parts of the course.
- Jayden Ross led the way once again and will graduate with the fastest time on 3 different courses, while having top-10 placements in 20 different courses. He’s come a wildly long way from junior high and I’m proud of him.
- Both Jusiah and Cael have come an awfully long way this season and it’s fun to watch them shine on the biggest stage of the year with strong performances. Both are more unphased by hills than most, and it showed today.
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Ashlee Eilander battles those hills in Eldora. (Marie Boulton photo). - Losing nearly half the team to graduation is difficult, especially with the three seniors being Jayden, Jack, and Carter. More often than not, they’ve been our three strongest runners this season and have showed a lot of leadership in practice. Similar to the girls, we lose a lot of experience with 17 years of cross country between the three.
- We’ll return 5 boys from this year’s team who are anxious to practice again (already), while also gaining 3 incoming 8th graders, I believe. The group will be fun and work hard, this I am sure of.