STARKVILLE — In Susan Willard”s first year as Starkville Academy”s cross country coach, she”s guided the team through youth and inexperience.
And as SA prepares for Monday”s Mississippi Association of Independent Schools North State meet at Choctaw Trails, Willard is keen to see the team”s steady improvement continue.
Willard said 60 percent of her team is ninth grade or younger, especially on the Lady Volunteers” side where freshmen Courtney Chestnut and Brooke Pogue have been two of their top three runners this season.
Willard said 75 percent of her runners set personal records at the Heritage Invitational three weeks ago in Columbus. Eight of SA”s 10 runners placed in the top 20 in their respective classes.
Considering the team”s youth, Willard is pleased with its late-season progress.
“As far as times, PRs and race courses, we”re about where we need to be,” Willard said. “We”ve stepped up our hill and speed workouts for them to peak at state. We”re head on right now.”
SA ran at the Jesse Owens Invitational on Oct. 2 in Alabama but didn”t bring a full team. Austin Miles finished 183rd out of 498 runners, while Dylan Dempsey was 41st out of 190 runners. Chestnut took 34th out of 91.
On Monday, Miles will take a 21-minute, 13-second 5K personal record at Choctaw Trails in Clinton. Thomas McBroom”s best mark at Choctaw Trails is 21:53.
For the Lady Vols, sophomore Christa Wilburn leads the group with a 14:27 two-mile clip. Chestnut looks to build on her Jesse Owens performance and her Choctaw Trails PR of 15:23.
Starkville Academy ran at Choctaw Trails on Aug. 30, and several of its runners have experience on the course last season.
The Lady Vols only have four varsity runners, and because five are needed to compete as a team, they”ll run individually.
Willard said the teams should benefit from cooler weather on Monday.
“We”ve really tried to pull together for the season and learn the basics,” Willard said. “My older section has stepped up to pull those guys along.”
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