On the day of the Williamsburg invitational, the Mount Vernon girls cross country team had strong motivation.
‘’The whole team had good vibes leading up to the run,” said sophomore Kate Martin.
When the race began, the girls had one goal in mind, ’’We wanted to beat Solon by more than one point,” Martin said. They exceeded that goal, beating Solon by 43 points at the event and pushing Solon down to third place. Throughout the meet, the temperature was higher than the girls had hoped for, with a high of 88 degrees during the event.
“The heat was a big struggle during the race and was hard to get used to,’’ Martin said. Not only did the team want to beat Solon, but they also wanted to compete well with Pella.
‘’The Pella girls team is powerful and dominant in the 3A division,” Martin said. They did lose to Pella, but the team competed very well against them, only losing by 32 points, which is a notable achievement against the 2024 3A state champions.
While the girls all pulled their effort in, one runner stood out with a time of 18:16. Evelyn Moeller placed second overall in a time of 18:16.1. ‘’She is one of the fastest girls on the team,’’ Martin said. Not only do her teammates think she is fast, but she was also named Athlete of the Week by KCRG-TV9 on Sept 26.
“I think everyone on the team felt pretty good after the race, as we had some really good performances like Evelyn’s PR,” said Edith Dawson, who placed fifth for her team.
“The girls did a lot better, not letting our 4,5, and 6 runners get too gapped out,” Dawson and the team were happy with second place but knew that if they continued to work hard, they would be able to keep improving.
“As a team, we had a goal of getting second on the girls’ side and getting as close to Pella as we could.” Just as Martin said, Dawson believes in the same team goals, and in the end, the goal was fully fulfilled.
The girls are heading to Waverly, Iowa, on Oct. 4, for the annual Wartburg Invitational, where they face 34 different schools from all around Iowa, looking to come out on top once again.
