Boys:

The boys cross country team has had an excellent first half of a season. Head coach Derek Fey said this is one of his best teams he has had during his time as head coach.

“[We are doing] very, very well,” Fey said. “At this point, we are probably the best team since 2007, when I came here. We got second in the Seward Meet, and won our home meet [Sept. 24], and got fourth place in Lincoln, which are meets that we typically don’t do very well at.”

The team is led by two seniors and a freshman. Senior Jordan Wheeler, who ran 600 miles this summer to prepare for the season, has been the top finisher for the Warriors in every meet this season. Senior Max Knight has finished second for the Warriors in every meet except the Westside Invite on Sept. 24. In that meet, freshman Milo Greder beat Knight. Greder has finished third best for the Warriors in all other events.

With the trio of very capable runners, Fey has high hopes for the district meet, which take place on Oct. 17.

“We’re in the hunt to win the district meet,” Fey said. “You only have to get top three to go to state. We are sitting in the top three fairly comfortably right now, so I would expect us to go to state. That would be the third time in 15 years we have made it for the boys side. All signs indicate we should be at state.”

As far as the Oct. 25 state meet, Fey is unsure of what to expect.

“Who knows [how we will do at the state meet],” Fey said. “State is very hard to predict because there are some districts where teams won’t qualify that probably should, because of the district they are in. So, that sometimes takes out some of the top teams. I would think that a top five finished would be very good, impressive for us.”

Girls:

The girls cross country team has not had the same success as the boys team this year. The team was No. 12 out of 14 teams. Senior Catie Thull, the teams leader, placed 2oth out of 95 in the meet.

The team has seen young runners step up, as three sophomores and one freshman are running in varsity meets. The sophomores are Phoebe Placzek, Mariah Tessin and Bridget Boyce. The freshman is Marta Hailu. At the Lincoln event, for the Warriors, Placzek was the third best finisher, Tessin was fourth best finisher, Hailu was the fifth best finisher and Boyce was the seventh best finisher. Senior Sarah Snyder was the second best finisher and junior Blair Coziahr was the sixth best finisher for the Warriors.

Girls cross country head coach Theresa Gosnell said the team has not done as well as last year, but the season has still gone well.

As far as getting to the state meet, Gosnell said the team has a chance.

“It’s not a strong possibility, but I’m very hopeful that we will,” Gosnell said.

To reach the state invite, the team needs to finish in the top three of their district. Gosnell said there is a clear-cut favorite to win the district, but the Warriors will have a chance to compete for the second and third place spots.

This is the second story in our series of sports season updates. We have already covered volleyball, and will continue with girls golf, boys tennis and softball.