By Ella Norton

The Mount Vernon girls cross country team placed third at the Benton Invitational meet last Saturday, finishing only behind Williamsburg (first) and Vinton Shellsburg (second). Beating theNorth Linn, Solon, Benton Community, and Clear Creek Amana. Although the Mustangs did not finish on top of the pack this time, Mount Vernon senior Maren Jeppson said, “I know we have a lot of potential.”According to the Iowa Association of Track Coaches, the Mount Vernon girls cross country teamis “a team to watch.”

At the Benton invitational meet Mount Vernon finished with an average time of 21:24, for the newly acquired distance of 5 kilometers instead of the previous 4 kilometers. The girls cross country team has six runners and in their finishing order at Benton was senior Maren Jeppson (4th), junior Hayley Corkin (12th), junior Faith Anton (15th), junior Lydia Frey (24th), junior Shae Banwart (25th), junior Haley Baker (27th), and freshman Quinnie Rodman (30th).

Jeppson said, “As a team we need to work on staying together more, so we can push each other.” She also commented that, “Our ultimate goal this season is to go to state, and to place as high as we can!” If the Mustangs want to achieve their goal of getting to state, they are going to have to work hard to get ranked and that will put them in a good district site. Their main competition in class 3A are teams including Assumption, Williamsburg, and Solon.

Mount Vernon junior Shae Banwart said that during practice they usually do an over distance run, which is usually 40 to 45 minutes long. And before a meet they run 2 to 3 miles.To top it off the Mustangs will occasionally have a team dinner to get them ready for the meet to come.With the season only a month away from districts, the Mount Vernon girls are hard at work to make everything fall in their favor.