Girls Cross Country Season Overview

Sports

Willow Gott, Sports Editor

November 6, 2023

Senior Katy Zimmer is a four year runner and one of the team leaders.

The Mt. Pleasant girls cross country team has had a pretty good season, especially based on the fact that they are a pretty young team. The team has sixteen girls, and eleven of them are underclassmen. So they were not expected to be very strong, but they proved everyone wrong. About half of the team has made personal records this year and more are soon to come, because in cross country you train so that you can be the best in the last two weeks of the season.

This year the girls got a new coach, Mr. Hicks, who is the AP Government and AP Comparative Government teacher here at MPHS. This was his first year coaching high school cross country. In the past he coached middle school cross country, high school track, and football. He said that coaching this year was challenging but he had lots of fun, and his daughter is a freshman on the team so that made it even better!

This year the girl with the fastest time is freshman Rhianna Armstrong, with seniors Katy Zimmer and Summer Terpstra close behind her. The team’s best meet was the Alcayner meet at delta college. It was a two mile race instead of a 5K which is what they normally run. Coach Hicks made a bet with the team that if they could all get a personal record, or beat their previous season average then he would get the team pizza. The girls worked really hard and reached the goal and were able to celebrate after the race with that pizza!

Freshman Abigail Hicks turns the corner at the Mt. Pleasant invite.
(Ellery Boyle)

The overall goal for the team is to have everyone run their best on the same day, it hasn’t happened yet but they hope that it will at regionals which is next Thursday. The conditions of the course have a large effect on how the girls run, they run best on flat, stiff ground with cool weather. When the ground is spongy they sink into it on every step, so it adds up to lost time in the end.

The girls are hoping that they can all run their best at regionals and qualify for states. They said that they don’t expect to qualify so if they don’t they won’t be too sad but they still would like to. The biggest challenge for them will be getting over the stress of the race because it’s such an important one, but since they are such a tight knit team they can work together to overcome the stress!

About the Contributors

Willow Gott, Former Editor

Willow Gott is a junior and this is her first year on the staff of the pipeline. She joined the staff because of her interest in sports writing/photography and discovering more about the other sports at MPHS. She is looking forward to being able to explore more writing about sports and the teams. When she isn’t covering sports, you can find her playing golf, tennis, or skiing. But most likely she's listening to her favorite song, Life is a Highway.

Addison Koch, Former Editor

Addison Koch is a junior and first year journalist for the pipeline. She was drawn to the newspaper from her interest in photography and writing. She is the News Editor and runs The Pipelines Social Media. When Addison isn't working on the newspaper, you can find her swimming, playing tennis, and doing performing arts.

Ellery Boyle, Managing Editor

Ellery Boyle is a junior and an experienced editor/reporter on the Pipeline. She originally joined the Pipeline for her interest in photography but found an interest in journalism. Boyle is involved in the swim and soccer teams and is also a member of the National Honor Society. When she's not working on the Pipeline she is probably baking or hanging out with her giant yellow lab, Max.

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