It has been a good start to the cross-country season, shining light onto the bright future of the team.

Over the past week, runners at East have been putting in the work as they competed in their first two meets of the season.

As of Tuesday, Aug. 21, runners on the XC team traveled to Louisville to compete in the annual Swags Fern Creek Relay competition held at Charlie Vettiner Park. Unfortunately, there was a problem with some of the timing chips, resulting in unrecorded times for many of the runners. Though some placing was still recorded, not all were.

The top pair of girls to place on the team in the Swags Fern Creek Relays was senior Lindsey Spencer and freshman Mia MaGuire as they ended in place 27 out of 86. Next on the team was eighth-grader Raelee Hawkins and freshman Hallie Thornsberry placing 39. Ending in place 72 was sophomores Jaiden Hammack and Ayden Perkins.

The top pair of boys to place on the team was freshmen Dalton Lesher and Isaiah Malone placing 10 out of 101. Next was sophomore Zach Ballard and senior Cole Davenport ending in place 24. Senior Blake Hourigan and freshman Jack Sappenfield placed 36. Followed by sophomore Alex Christmas and freshman Tyler Bass in place 68.

Coach Lenny Raley was happy with the teams’ performance in this competition. “I was pleased with our efforts. It was a good test to see where our fitness levels are. I was extremely pleased with Dalton and Isaiah as both are Freshmen and gave really strong performances,” said Raley.

On Saturday, Aug. 25, freshman cross-country runners traveled to compete in the annual Tiger Run competition held at the Louisville Champions Park in Louisville. All members of the team worked hard at this meet, and that is shown through their places and times.

The top boy on the team to place in this competition was Lesher as he placed first out of 100 with an outstanding time of 13:44.64. Next was Malone placing 11 with a clock time of 14:37.62. Then was freshman Cody Bostock ending in place 48 with a time of 16:36.74. Not too far behind was freshman Bass ending in place 50 with a time of 16:45.25.

Freshman Mia MaGuire was the first to place for the girls team, as she came in second place out of 35 total runners ending with a clock time of 17:00.98.

After clocking in good times in his first two meets of the season, Lesher has taken up leadership roles on the team. “It feels good to be on top, people are looking up to me which makes me have to step it up and be a leader, nothing is more important than the team.”

All runners on the team competed well in both competitions this past week. There is a lot of potential on the team this year, and many are excited for what the future holds.