Going into this season not much was expected of the US cross country team, with three seniors leaving for college and only one senior on varsity. But this team has improved by leaps and bounds from last season, with four runners under 17 minutes and the top seven under 18 minutes for the 5k. 

The season opened at the Riverside Kickoff classic, which according to head coach Brent Brown was, “one big puddle” The team took home 11th place in a competitive field of 30 teams. The next meet was at Mentor and the team improved greatly. When asked by News-Herald reporter Ben Hercik about the meet Junior captain Jack O’Neill said, “[At] Riverside we all had a bit of a slog, but the next week at Mentor we all dropped 30-40 seconds,” The team had a great meet and finished in 7th place out of 27 teams. 

After good performances at the Walsh Jesuit Pat Richie Invitational (3rd place out of 10) and Strongsville (11th place out of 29), The team traveled to Madison for the U Wanna Come Back Invitational and finished in first place out of 32 teams. Junior Captain Quinn Macphail finished in fourth place, with Chase Greppin and Jack O’Neill also finishing in the top ten. When asked by Ben Herick about the team title, Senior Captain Chase Greppin said, “It was really encouraging for the team to see all the work we’ve been putting in paying off,… We’ve had some really competitive times at meets and placed well. But that meet was a culmination of everything and we were able to show that all the work yielded the reward of the team title.” 

After a good performance at The Legends Invitational on the seventh, the varsity team will compete at Districts this Saturday, October 21st at 2:15 in Madison. If the team finishes in the top seven at Districts they will travel to Regionals the following weekend. 

Quotes are from this article: https://www.news-herald.com/2023/10/08/university-cross-country-preppers-aim-to-build-on-u-wanna-come-back-invitational-team-title/ 

And team places and stats are from https://www.milesplit.com/