The cross country team comes home with a chip on their shoulders and looks to improve from here on.

The cross country team made their season debut with a 5k on Saturday, Aug. 24 at the Tiger Run held at Louisville Champion Park and was hosted by St. Xavier.

The boys had some great individual performances but they believe they can improve as a team. The girls were short handed and did not place in the final rankings. The team is using this weekend’s performance as motivation for the rest of the season. 

Leading the boys was Sophomore Isaiah Malone who placed 64th and finished with a time of 17:32.74. Following Malone, junior Alex Christmas placed 190th with a final time of 19:43.28. Shortly after, juniors Zach Ballard and Logan Gentry placed 207th and 215th with final times of 19:52.95 and 20:08.91. Sophomores Dakota Cerra and Tyler Bass and junior Stephen Redmon finished shortly after.  The boys finished 25 out of 34 teams.

“I am very happy with my placement at Saturday’s meet and I reached a new personal best. I think we all did good but as a whole we could do much better,” said Malone. The team is already working to improve and they are not taking this weekend results lightly.

On the girls side, they did not place due to lack of runners. Only three girls were able to run on Saturday and they were disappointed with their results. Junior Emily Tinelli placed 70th with a time of 22:02.48 and sophomore Mia Maguire finished right behind her at 71st with a time of 22:07.83. Junior Jaiden Hammack placed 213th with a final time of 28:20.12. In the freshman girls 4k race, Raelee Hawkins had a standout performance, placing 6th and finishing with a time of 17:56.42. 

“Overall, I would say the team is pretty disappointed in the results. Pretty much everyone had a really hard race and it was just a tough day for us all,” said Maguire. Everyone on the team has begun to push themselves even harder to make sure they do not place as low as they did Saturday. 

The first meet was a good learning experience for the team and although it wasn’t the start they were looking for, it will help push them harder as the season progresses. “We had a hard practice in the rain today and we are more motivated than ever to prove to the other schools in our region that they should be worried,” said Maguire.

The cross country team’s next meet is Tuesday, Aug. 27 at Charlie Vettiner Park in Jeffersontown.