Sporting WCA

Cross Country looks to Bring Home State Title

If there is a team who will bring home a State Championship to Westminster this fall, it very well may be the Cross Country team.

Led by Evan Parres and A.J Lloyd, the male team had a stellar season last fall. Evan Parres, A.J Lloyd, Xander Smith, and David Montgomery are confident that this year’s team has a chance to do something special. These seniors look to lead the male portion of the team to even more success than they saw last year. This group is lead by Evan Parres as long as he can stay healthy, which has sadly been a big issue in the past.

“Evan currently isn’t healthy but we are hopeful that he will be back by the end of the season. With Evan we will State, without him we will get second” commented David Montgomery, who has been on the Varsity squad since his Freshman year.

A.J Lloyd, in his first year on the team last season, seemed to have no problems transitioning from Soccer to XC. Lloyd enjoyed track so much his sophomore year, that he decided to keep on running his Junior year. Lloyd finished with a 19th place finish at the state meet last season and earned All- State honors. He looks to improve even more this season.

The Girls team is hyped up for this season as well. Last year the girls put together a stellar season. The team was lead by veterans Kathryn Kramer, Rachel Strothkamp, and Hallie Hull along with star freshman Isabella Francois and Ava Hollman. The team was able to secure a second place finish in districts and qualified for state as a team for the first time since 2002! The success didn’t stop there, out of 169 runners at the state meet, Strothkamp finished 32nd, Francois 34th, and Hollman 39th. Kathryn Kramer, who is in her second year as captain, has even higher hopes for the team this year.

“So far our team looks really strong. This season we are able to do workouts that we couldn’t do until the middle of the season last year. We are expecting to get at least 2nd at districts hoping that we can take out MICDS to get 1st,” said Kramer.

Kramer also spoke to how tightly knit of a group the girls team is, “”Honestly I have never been as close to a team as I am with my cross country girls. When you are basically killing yourself in every single workout, you get amazingly close with your team. I would do anything for those girls.”

The road to state for the Guys and Girls starts on Friday the 25th at home.