The 2024 Manual Cross Country season took off this past weekend with the annual Saint Xavier Tiger Run held at Champions Park. Both the girls’ and boys’ teams have a plethora of returning talent, consisting of both upperclassmen and underclassmen who are ready to pick off where they started and make a bigger impact.
Last year in the KHSAA State Championship, the girl’s team came 3rd overall in class 3A with 110 points after losing in a tiebreaker to Oldham County. Meanwhile, the boy’s team came 11th overall. As both teams have many returning seniors, they are ready and excited for the new season.
The top girls’ runners are Maggie May (12, HSU), Emerson Wyatt (12, MST) and Bailee Montgomery (11, HSU). All three runners placed within the top 15 in the state championship last year; Montgomery came 3rd, May placed 12th and Wyatt finished 14th.
On the boy’s side, there is also a very strong group of upperclassmen–in this case, all seniors–that are leading the team. Sam Chandler (12, HSU), Quinn Gulden (12, HSU), Tedi Henderson (12, HSU), Brady Jenkins (12, HSU) and Jacob Bohn (12, HSU) are the boy’s team top runners for this season, placing high in many meets throughout the fall.
With talent comes leadership, and leading the girls’ team as captains are May, Wyatt and Sienna Underwood (12, MST). On the boys’ team, captains include Chandler, Gulden and Ty Barnes (12, MST).
Practicing in the grueling heat during the summer and the first couple weeks of August helped the team make their mark this past weekend in their first official meet. During the Tiger Run, the girl’s team came first overall with 61 points. Montgomery also placed second with a time of 18:31.98 and Wyatt placed ninth at 19:16.68. Three other runners on the girl’s team placed 13th, 17th and 29th, showing their depth.
The boy’s team came third overall in the Tiger Run. Chandler placed 13th with a time of 15:48.75 and Gulden placed 27th with a time of 16:06.15.
Despite having so many strong seniors, the younger runners on the team are also performing well, looking up to senior mentality and talent as a driving force.
“I think there’s going to be less of a distance between the big three and some of the ones behind them,” Head Cross Country Coach Mr. Tim Holman (Social Studies) said.
Overall, both the boy and girl team’s main goals are to improve, not just to win.
“We really focus on living in the moment and really sort of just focusing on the day-to-day and see the results as something that’s a product of that,” Holman said.
The team’s next meet is the Brown County Eagle Classic on September 14 in Nashville, IN.
