By Jason Lawrence
Special to The Citizen
Paced by mostly underclassmen last season, the Park Hill cross country program sent just one athlete to the Class 4 State Meet last year. With more experienced cores, both the boys’ and girls’ teams are expecting more this season.
“Although we finished ninth out of 10 teams in our district (last season), we continue to improve,” boys’ head coach John Milholland said. “Half of our team last year was new runners, and they continue to get faster.”
Despite having no state or sectional qualifiers returning, Milholland does return a seasoned group of seniors in Adam Velez, Evan Ericksen (60th at the Class 4 District 8 Meet), Devin Robertson (66th) and Vincent Costanzo as well as juniors Isaiah Phillips (42nd) and Ryan Fette (62nd). Sophomores Ben Foster, Colby Duarte, Brian Sweney, Luke ciccio and Donovan Boyd (64th) also return after gaining valuable experience as freshmen.
In addition to the returners, the boys’ squad will include 14 newcomers.
“We have a number of new runners who I’m excited to see run this year,” Milholland said. “It is too early yet to see who will make an impact on the team, but our future is based on their level of work ethic and dedication to getting faster.”
After finishing last in the Suburban Conference Gold Division each of the last two seasons, the Trojans would like to finish sixth or higher and fourth or better at districts.
“We have finished in last place the last two years but expect to do better this year due to a group of dedicated runners who have been putting in the miles,” Milholland said. “We love to compete at all of the meets, but we focus on districts and sectionals so we can get to the state meet.”
The girls’ squad returns four varsity runners – senior Amelia Pelaez and juniors Abby Fette, Avery Blakely and Brooklyn Niebaum – but did lost their lone state qualifier from a year ago, Grace Fink, to graduation. Fink finished 19th at both the conference and district meets before punching her ticket to state with a 23rd place showing at sectionals.
“Over the past few years, we have lost a number of runners who helped build the program since I came on as coach,” girls head coach Krista Loughran said. “This year, we have a lot of young and novice runners with high hopes and ambitions. It will be exciting to see what this season brings.”
With postseason running experience, Niebaum (44th at districts) as well as Blakely (49th) and Fette (50th) will be tasked with leading a young team with potential into the 2018 season, which begins Saturday, Sept. 1 at the Tim Nixon Invitational at Liberty North.