Groton Girls Cross Country is ready to hit the ground running. After the 2018-2019 season, the team is pushing to improve its placement at the Independent School League Championships (ISLs) this November by increasing its depth, acquiring new runners and taking advantage of increased summer training.

Summer training is crucial for cross country as it gives runners a head start to the season, and it can easily decide the team’s success for the year. Summer training allows you to enter the season in peak running physique and gives you the opportunity to get to new heights. Coach O’Donnell is hopeful for the start of the season, as he thinks “the girls have been training hard over the summer, which bodes well for keeping us healthy and racing at full strength throughout the season.”

Last year, the junior varsity team finished sixth at the ISLs while varsity finished fifth. The top seven runners were a very close group, unlike some of the competition, placing as a whole between 11th and 38th while teams like Milton had a range of 4th to 49th. Further closing that range will make the team even more competitive.

Four out of the top seven runners from last year are returning, including Aisling and Wren, the top two scorers on the team. The three varsity seniors who graduated this past spring will be missed, but new and returning runners have been training over the summer and are hoping to accomplish more this season. Two new runners who may make an impact on the team are Nadia Fourie ’22 and Brianna Zhang ’23.

Last year there was a significant performance gap between the JV and varsity lineups; JV and incoming runners hope to work hard together to close that range, thereby making the entire team more competitive.

“The most important thing I think that we need to work on this year is staying in packs while we run in order to push ourselves and the people we are running with,” team captain Caroline Locke ’20 said. 

With the competitive, tight-knit, and caring team returning to the season, the team will be able to work together in order to collectively thrive. “We had a really close team last year and we hope to maintain the same positive attitude throughout this season,” Caroline said. 

Runners on the team such as Aisling O’Connell ’21 agree that their spirit is something that will never change, and that’s what they love about the team. 

Based on the results from last year, the team could potentially finish in the top three this year after some overall improvements across the top seven runners. As long as the team stays healthy and injury-free, they should be able to fulfill their hopes of placing better at ISLs this year.