The boys cross-country team’s state championship banner has remained bare for years, but cross country coach Andrew Easton thinks there’s a possibility that could change by the end of this season.

“This year’s team is a core group of guys that has been a couple of years in the making,” Easton said.

After a successful season led by former seniors Aaron Duin and Mitch Cozhair, the leadership was handed down to a group of talented seniors including Levi DeVries, Jakob Phillips, Alec Reilly and Abdi Abdinasir. They took on their role by pushing the team to run over 10,000 miles this summer, the most in school history.

“Honestly, I think that this season could be the best Westside cross-country team that we’ve ever had,” DeVries said, “We have a lot of returning talent and while a lot of other teams have lost some of their top notch runners, we’re maintaining and improving what we already had.”

In addition to the four seniors leading the team, junior Milo Greder is another runner to watch this season, as he placed seventh in the state as a sophomore and has the potential to place even higher this season.

“We have four guys that have the potential to be all state by the end of the season,” Easton said, “I feel like we can compete with anybody.”

The varsity team will not be competing in the annual Seward invite, but will kick-off their season on Friday Sept. 11 at the Millard South invite.