On Oct. 3, girls varsity cross country had a meet at Deicke Park against Crystal Lake South and McHenry. Together, they shuffled their feet against the harsh gravel of the trail in order to bring home a victory for their team.

Just like most team sports, teamwork is a very important factor when wanting to take home a win. Especially to coach Brad Gallaugher.

“We’re really trying to get them to run at their very best,” Gallaugher said. “And obviously with championship season coming up these are the meets where we want to run in together and I think we’re closing in on that.”

As the girls run, it is noticeable that their coach is proud of the accomplishments that they have made together as a team. Many of the girls on the team take how they run very seriously, and are always trying to look for ways to improve.

“For the next race I want to try and taper my workouts a little bit and try to loosen up a little bit more,” junior Madison Overly said. “And I will just sleep a lot more, and drink a lot more water and [eat] nutritious foods.”

It is important not only to the girls, but to their coach as well, that they stay healthy and hydrated due to the fact that they are running long distance in a variety of weather conditions. As the girls chugged water and stretched out their legs after the run, once can see that this sport is not easy.

“My legs are really heavy and sore because we had a big meet [last] weekend, and we’re all dead and sore,” Overly said.

She persevered though, and placed seventh at the end of the meet, with a time of 20:23.

Other varsity players did well also: Annie Mitchell placed fourth and held a time of 20:20, Mary Raclawski placed fifth with 20:21, Olivia Boncosky placed ninth with 20:24, Rachel Morrison placed 10th with 20:24.5, Gen Porsche placed 12th with 20:33, and Bailey Wilk placed 13th with a time of 20:44.