Girls’ cross country nearing the finish line for Regionals

Natalie Cote and Emma Pizana lead the pack of RB runners at the Lisle Invite.

Cameron Shaw, Staff Reporter

Even though the fall sports seasons are starting to wrap up, the girls’ varsity cross country team never stops.  Despite a mixed record, the girls’ team is tightly bonded and motivated and looking forward to the end of the season.

Practice makes perfect. The girls practice every day after school from 3:20 pm – 5:30 pm and occasionally practice at 6:00 am on Fridays.

Sophomore runner Natalie Cote said, “Our practices can be intense. Mentally intense. On Mondays we run long distances, Tuesdays and Thursdays we work on speed and lift weights, and Wednesdays and Fridays we have recovery. We run a four mile Indian run on Wednesdays and three miles on Friday mornings.”

Although cross country is considered an individual sport, the girls learn to push each other and grow together as a team.

Freshman Hailey Jurgens said, “Being on varsity as a freshman is really fun. The girls on this team are nice to everyone which makes this experience a lot better. They’re my favorite part about being on cross country.”

Jurgens has been leading the Riverside Brookfield team as an underclassmen in every race. At the Lisle meet, she placed 17th overall and was the first RB runner to cross the finish line. The girls finished 8th out of the 19 teams at the meet.

The girls have been doing an outstanding job with their placements. Near the beginning of the season, at the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiler Park, they placed 25th out of 51 teams, and at the Roy Gummerson Invitational meet, the girls placed 6th out of 14 teams.

At conference, the girls finished 4th out of 7 teams.

The team has regionals on October 25 which RB is hosting, and finally sectionals November 1.

Good luck to the varsity girls on the rest of their season!