This season, both the upper and underclassmen of the girls’ cross country team are working together to improve their running skills.

In July, the cross country team, led by head coach Cathy Kitchens and assistant coach Jenny Carroll, began conditioning. According to Lauren Turk, a returning senior on the team, this conditioning helped the team improve their running skills for the 2021-2022 season. 

“Now, we all have more training under our belts,” Turk said.

Turk is one of nine returning seniors on the team, which includes Adelle Burkhardt, Kylie Perkins, and Ashley Flick, who holds the fourth fastest 5k time in program history. Although the seniors on the team show talent when running, there are also talented underclassmen as well.

“We have Rachel Flick, who’s really good, and Valeria Lara, a sophomore,” Turk said, “They usually run together, and they push each other, so they make a good pack of runners.”

Towards the beginning of the season, the underclassmen adapted to the season with the help of the seniors, who were impressed with their work ethic.

“Even though they are younger, they work just as hard as us,” Turk said.

In addition to Flick and Lara, other talented underclassmen on the team are Sophia Ramsey and Taylor Turk, who joined the team this season. 

“They’ve been working really hard and adapting together,” Turk said, “so they earned their spot in varsity.”

So far, the girls’ varsity cross country team has performed well on their recent meets, placing first in both their Ben Davis meet on August 14th and their Rushville meet on August 28th.