Sports

Girls Cross Country Season Recap

Caleigh Satterfield, Reporter

October 30, 2024

Photo Credits: Agnes Hasler

The John Adams Girl’s Cross Country team has worked exceptionally hard this year, and their efforts have shone through in their race results. After advancing to regionals both last season and the season before, the team has a promising future with three freshmen having stepped up to join this year’s varsity team. This year’s team is also composed of two seniors, three juniors and two sophomores.

Since pre-season conditioning began in early June, the runners were able to get a head start on their training, segwaying into a successful season. Their meets however, began in late August, starting with the NIC Stomp meet hosted at Oxbow County Park. The Adams girls team placed sixth out of 10, with a total score of 135. Two Adams runners, Emily Shepherd (grade 12) and Agnes Hasler (grade 10), were top finishers.

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The following meet was the South Bend City Meet, hosted at Erskine Golf Course. This time, the team came in third with a score of 64. Shepherd placed 3rd overall, and Hasler placed 10th. Lucy Garvey (grade 10) placed 12th in this race. At the Penn Invitational, the Adams girls placed 4th overall, with a score of 111. Shepherd placed 8th in this race while Garvey placed 28th. Grace Knutson (grade 11) and Mary McVeigh (grade 11) also had notable races, both finishing within the top 40 girls.

The Manchester Invite results placed the team as 10th out of more than 20 teams. The girls scored an overall score of 277, and Shepherd and Hasler placed 21st and 22nd. While the team was back at Oxbow County Park for their next meet, the Minutemen Classic, they placed 13th out of 16 teams by scoring only 311 points. Both Shepherd and Hasler placed within the top 30. The following meet was the New Prairie Invitational, with the Adams girls again placing 13th out of over 22 teams. This time, they had a combined score of 372. For their final meet of the regular season, the John Adams Girls Cross Country team ran in the Culver invite and finished with an overall score of 421. The girls team placed 14th out of 24 teams present.

Leading into postseason, the girls ran in the NIC Conference meet. This meet, similar to the NIC Stomp, was hosted at Oxbow County Park. The exclusivity of this meet, along with the fact that the team was familiar with the course, led them to place 3rd overall, with a score of 101! Three Adams girls finished within the top 20, with Hasler coming in 10th, Shepherd in 11th, and Garvey in 17th. This earned all three girls honors within the Conference. Both Shepherd and Hasler made NIC’s Second Team All Conference, and Garvey received an honorable mention.

After great results at the Conference meet, it was finally time for sectionals. The 2024 NIC Sectionals were hosted at New Prairie High School, a familiar course for this team. Only the top five teams advanced from the sectional, but the hard work of the Adams girls led them to place fourth. Senior Emily Shepherd placed 10th, Hasler placed 12, and Garvey placed 23. Overall, the girls team scored 130. This advanced the team onto regionals, also to be hosted at New Prairie High School.

After a season of hard work and many races, the Adams girls raced one last time. Scoring 19th out of 24 teams, they did not advance to the State meet. When asked about the season, senior captain Emily Shepherd said, “This cross-country season was definitely a journey. There were many ups and downs through the past couple of months. However, the team did really well this season, and I couldn’t be prouder of this team. The memories made and countless courses ran while being a part of the cross country team. The past four years have been nothing but great, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.” This closes out an impressive season from the John Adams Girls Cross Country team and boasts success for the years to follow.

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About the Contributor

Caleigh Satterfield

As a senior at John Adams High School, Caleigh Satterfield is excited to begin her first year writing for its esteemed newspaper, The Tower. She is ready to write articles about the things that interest her, such as animals, reading, sleeping, and finding excuses to procrastinate doing her homework. Caleigh is most looking forward to expanding her writing skills and to take on some interesting writing topics. In the future, she hopes to have a successful career in the medical technology field, specifically radiology. Outside of her professional goals, she hopes to live in a house straight out of her pinterest boards, and to have at least four dogs. Caleigh has run for the school's cross country team each year and plans to run track this year. In her spare time, you can find her complaining about her hatred for running. She has also participated in Adams softball as a middle infielder, and gymnastics outside of school. Reading, random crafting, baking, and cleaning up messes made while baking are just some of the many, many talents Caleigh has. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching scary movies, listening to music, and annoying her sister. Caleigh’s sister, Mackenzie, would describe her as, “energetic and really strongly willed,” as well as “athletic and sort of funny.” Her favorite music artists include Loathe, Billie Eilish, Massive Attack, and Hana Vu. If you ask her, Caleigh will tell you that she has the best music taste out of anyone you’ll never meet, which is most certainly true. Caleigh is very excited to finish out her senior year writing for The Tower, alongside some of her friends. She hopes that her creativity and unique individual voice will shine through her words as she tackles writing subjects that will snag the interests of many.