The action for area cross country teams begins Thursday.
Iola, Humboldt and Crest’s cross country teams begin their season at the Anderson County Invitational while Marmaton Valley competes at Burlington.
Iola
The Mustangs bring a young team into the season with only a single experienced upperclassmen in junior Cole Moyer. Sophomore Brennen Coffield should also make his name known after running well as a freshman at the regional meet.
Iola lost three senior runners to graduation, including state-qualifier Jesse Taylor, but is bolstered by a roster of 17 promising runners. The key will be sticking together and pushing each other through practices to improve times.
“Our team goals are to do our best and have fun while doing it,” said Brittany Daugharthy, head coach. “The athletes want to do well at meets and have the ability to do so.”
Humboldt
The Humboldt cross country team is coming off a season in which the girls were crowned Tri-Valley league champions and the boys were the Tri-Valley league runner-up. A lot of that success can be translated to this fall with a number of returners, including two seniors.
The Cubs have also had the boys’ league individual champion for the last four years. Senior Cubs Danica Modlin and Landon Bauer will lead the team along with junior runners McKenna Jones, Anna Heisler, Brigg Shannon and sophomore Layne Ellison.
“We always have a goal to compete for the league title on both sides,” Humboldt head coach Eric Carlson said. “If we can stay injury-free, we should have a good shot to compete for the league championship on both sides. In addition we hope to make a push for team qualifiers for the state meet.”
Crest
The Lancers are also coming off Three Rivers League championship, a regional championship, and placing third as a team at the state championship meet. They also have returning state-qualifiers Josie Walter, Peyton Schmidt and Aubrey Allen — all sophomores.
Crest head coach Kaitlyn Cummings has been able to form a strong core of runners she’s had since their middle school days.
“I think our team strengths are that we have a close knit group that works as a family and it’s a team setting,” said Cummings. “Placing third as a team at state showed me that my program at Crest is getting stronger. I have such talented young ladies on my team.”
Marmaton Valley
