The Wolves have their running shoes on, and a team of both returning and new athletes are ready to go for the Green River High School Cross Country season.
"We've got a full team, mostly returning athletes, although we have quite a few freshmen, too," Head Coach Craig Leavitt explained. "We had several kids come over from Track and decide to do cross country, so that'll be good this year. We're pretty excited about it."
Recruitment being up is always a plus, but having more team members can also mean having more to work on.
"It's always nice to have a bigger team," Leavitt said, but he admitted this year that also means "it's a very young team."
With so many new members, the varsity team will likely have freshmen and sophomores competing, especially among the boys. This could be a disadvantage against older and more experienced competition. But Coach Leavitt said they'll likely start the boys out at the JV level to see how they do, then move them up.
"It'll be good for them," he said. "They'll get four years on varsity."
Several of the returning athletes this season are among the girls team, so Coach Leavitt feels they will be strong and do well.
"I think we'll have a few top finishes on the girls side, so that'll be exciting," he said. "And they're really close together as far as talent, so hopefully they are up front. We've got some pretty good leaders on our team."
The Coach added that the girls have big goals of bringing home trophies and medals, so the team's focus is competing at the State level.
The team is already off to a good start for the season, Coach Leavitt said, especially since lots of the team members ran over the summer. They've also gotten two weeks of practice in, which has been going well, despite the hot weather.
"The kids are ready for some cooler days, but they've been training in it," Leavitt said, noting it could be good practice to prepare for early competitions. "We might have some meets in the heat."
The first meet for the cross country team will be in Lander next Thursday, August 31, followed by a meet in Soda Springs on Saturday, September 2.
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