CROSS COUNTRY
By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
Advertisement
|
The Lawrence High School boys cross country team is looking to improve from last year and the girls’ team is excited about being able to score.
The girls have been running as an unofficial team the past few seasons since they did not have enough runners to score in their meets. This season with a dozen girls out for the team, the Cardinals can compete in the team scoring along with racing for individual achievements.
Sophomore Natalie Falk and junior Nicole Kelliher return from a last season’s team. Lawrece coach Dave O’Neal said Falk has shown great maturity as a sophomore and had taken on the leadership role on the team.
Joining the girls’ team this season are junior Laura Brehm, sophomore Alice Shen, freshmen Tracy Kremer, Stuti Tank and Andrea Tunnard.
O’Neal said the team has bonded together and is looking forward to competing as a team.
The Cardinal boys’ team is led by senior Adam Hinson. Lawrence graduated five senior runners from last season’s team.
Junior Martin Truszkowski and sophomore Justin Wisniewski also return to the Cardinal program with experience in the county and state races, while returning junior runners Scott Figatner and Ben Muzi are looking to move into the spots previously held by last season’s seniors.
O’Neal said sophomores Kyle Bennett and Rafal Truszkowski come in with limited racing experience but have shown they can impact Lawrence’s top seven. O’Neal said freshman Solomon Park stood out from the rest of his class in the early season practices.
O’Neal expects Martin Truszkowski to show improvement this season after racing as Lawrence’s third runner last year.
O’Neal said the junior runner committed to his summer running and established himself as the top runner on the team.
With the team coming into the season in better shape than any O’Neal has seen in the past several seasons, the Cardinal coach is confident his team can improve on the 5-9 team record Lawrence recorded last year.