Coming back from a big win, the Girl’s Cross-Country team has almost doubled in numbers compared to last year. While the team’s growth could be from fewer COVID restrictions, the large freshmen class, or heightened interest in getting into shape, there is another, more obvious reason, why cross country is such a popular sport at Seattle Prep this year. Last year, the Girl’s Cross-Country team  of approximately thirty girls dominated their way to State and brought home another State banner for the walls of the Seattle Prep Gym. This victory brought more eyes to the cross-country team and could be the reason so many girls  are running this year.  But what are some pros and cons of having a large team?

In the words of one of the cross-country captains, Daniela Sekhar ’22 , “Having a larger team means there is a lot more talent going around, so there is more of a chance of having really good people and seeing a lot of improvement”.  This improvement has shown with runners from the girls’ team placing in the top ten at the Sehome invitational and the Metro Meet on Friday the 17th. Seattle Prep also took  home the overall team title from the Sehome invitational.

The team is larger than many other high school teams which also gives a competitive look. Showing up to meets with a group of almost sixty girls “makes other teams intimidated when they see us all together at the line or see how many of us are coming to an invite” (Lily O’Donoghue-McDonald ’22). But having a substantial number of girls does come with some faults.

O’Donoghue-McDonald talked  about difficulties with creating a tight-knit community with so many girls. “I think it is a little harder to connect everyone because we can’t all ride to meets together just as an example, but as we have more meets, I think we’ll all get closer”. Sekhar added,  “It is harder (with a big team) to have positive team culture where everyone is motivated because there are people that are  not as excited about the cross country or see it as more of just a no-cut sport”.

On what it takes to be a state-winning team Coach Ben Sauvage says, “ Every school has the talent walking the halls to be Cross-Country champions, it’s whether you can make it challenging and rewarding enough so athletes really want to push through”. Everyone should get excited to see what the team is going to accomplish this year! Go Panthers!