Monroe Cross Country ranks high at state invitational

Monroe+Cross+Country+ranks+high+at+state+invitational

Natalie Maas, Reporter

The Monroe High cross country team exceeded expectations at Michigan State University Sept. 18 in the annual Spartan Invitational.

The varsity boys took third place out of 38 teams, winning a trophy for the school. The varsity girls placed fifth, after being ranked at ninth out of 39 teams.

Coach Mark Scoles said he is happy with the team’s performance.

“I think we still have a lot of improving that will happen during the season, but I was pleased with today,” Scoles said.

Both the boys and the girls improved their team rankings from the previous year. In 2014, the boys finished 16th and the girls were 22nd in their respective varsity races. The team is looking forward to the remainder of this season.

The runners had both individual and group goals for the race, including earning medals and trophies.

Senior boys’ captain Anthony Wohlfeil said he achieved both his personal goal and team goal.

“I wanted to medal as an individual and place as a team,” Wohlfeil said.

The team also had a strategy for the race. Senior girls’ captain Sidney Towalski said some strategies were the same as usual, but others were changed due to the conditions of the course.

“We were supposed to stick with our groups and trust our training, just like normal. Since the course was muddy and there were a lot of runners, we were supposed to go wide on all the turns to avoid getting trapped,” Towalski said. The Michigan State course is typically a fast course, but rain earlier in the day created poor conditions for running.

Monroe’s junior varsity boys finished 10th out of 30 teams, and the junior varsity girls were 23rd out of 42 teams. The team has seven remaining meets this season.