The Cross Country Team traveled to Lebanon on September the 14th, and they ran into some trouble.

“We usually have fun at the Lebanon course; there are rolling hills that make a big circle, but  since it hasn’t rained in the past couple days and Lebanon had to mow new paths to differ from last year, the ground did not even out as it usually does,” senior Sophia Holmes said.

When the ground doesn’t even out correctly, there are holes everywhere. Usually before the race a tractor pulls a large cylinder behind it flatten the ground out.

“Addy Brow and Krista Hilmas both hurt their ankles Monday while running the race, but the team is hoping for a quick recovery for both of them. They are a major part of the varsity girls team,” Holmes said.

While the course affected the Cross Country team with a few injuries, overall the scores proved that the rest of the squad prevailed.

“Will Crutcher, on varsity boys, placed third overall and I placed second in varsity girls. The whole team’s times were really good considering how hard the course was this year,” Holmes said.

The junior varsity boys team ended up with a perfect score of 15, and varsity boys got first, as well. Varsity girls would have placed higher as well, but as so mentioned, there were injuries damaging their score.

“Eight high schools competed that Monday: Rolla, Branson, Waynesville, Lebanon, Springfield Central, Parkview, Rogersville, and Camdenton. Branson is the toughest team to beat because all of their runners run in a pack and near the front,” senior runner Joanna Callier said.

Waynesville and Lebanon were running partners for Rolla’s racers, they stayed with them throughout the race. Since all three teams are close by, they usually go to the same meets. Therefore, the runners use each other as a guide to where they are in the pack.   

“I feel like we [Rolla] always give it our all. I think that we all did the best we could Monday and that’s something to be proud of,”  Holmes said.