Travelling three and a half hours away to St.Louis, the girls cross country team faced off against 26 different schools from across the state.
At seven o’ clock PM, after a few hours on the bus, the girl’s Junior Varsity team raced their first official 5k meet of the season at Fort Zumwalt’s North Twilight Invitational, which Sophomore Haley Baldwin said would position the team, ordering the girls based off their times.
Not only does this meet help kick off the season though, as Baldwin also said the race helps build the team’s confidence for state.
“It’s just like a way of setting our streak for state and getting in a mentality that this is for the big meet. Every meet we run til state is very important,” Baldwin said.
As for how the Junior Varsity team scored, the girls won second place, one point away from Eureka High School’s lead of 49 points.
In addition to this, Freshman Ella Cronhardt medaled first place with a time of 20 minutes and 57 seconds, a lettering time within the first race of her high school career.
As for the rest of the Junior Varsity team, athletes Juniors Devyn Dancy and Abigail Moore along with Sophomore Jayden Ross, and Freshman Madysen McVey all medaled among the top 25 athletes.
The Varsity team followed an hour later with Senior Madison Hulsey placing first with a time of 18 minutes and 29 seconds.
Behind her, Seniors McKenna Butler, Ruthie Cox, and Addie Mathis, along with Sophomore Haley Baldwin and Freshman Makayla Clark also medaled within the top 25 athletes. Overall, the team won with a score of 33 points, each athlete with a time under 20 minutes for the three point one miles.
Going into the meet, Sophomore Haley Baldwin said the biggest challenge for her personally would be pushing past physical limitations mentality.
“Whenever I feel tired, I’ll want to slow down, but I should be able to want to push myself and be like ‘no, I can finish this’. I’m gonna be like, ‘I need to stick to this person’ or like, ‘I’m gonna pass this person’. I’m not being tired and just giving up,” Baldwin said.
With this in mind, Baldwin medaled in 5th place with a time of 18 minutes and 57 seconds.
“I think at Fort Zumwalt we can win if we all are motivated and work together and then there’s that competition within ourselves,” Baldwin said.
And West did just that, winning first and second place in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions.
