The cross country teams have been practicing and preparing all year for their meets. Their biggest test of the season came on Oct. 31 in the regional meet at High Point Farm in Clarksburg.

The Patriots faced off against the 24 other Montgomery County public schools. The long season and invitationals and meets prepared the Patriots for their harder end of the season. Junior Eric Carlson said, “We have been working hard all season and pushing ourselves to get in the best possible form for our upcoming meets.”

The top seven boys and girls will then go off to represent at the state meet. The seven boys who will be representing the Patriots are senior Scott Sritharan, senior Joe De Jong, junior Teddy Keenan, juniors Jason Wang and David Weiss, sophomore Armaan Salchak, and freshman Tyler Sauvajot.

The seven girls representing the Patriots are seniors Anna Baldwin, Victoria Shumakovich, Alyssa D’Arpa and Jessica Penry, junior Emma Helgeson, freshmen Rebecca Vasconez and Julianne Yao. Science teacher and cross country coach Jacob Buxton said, “The boys’ and girls’ teams have been trained to be at their best for these two meets. The girls have a really good chance of qualifying for the state meet. For the boys it will be tougher, but if they step up to the challenge they can do it.”

The Patriots most recent meet was counties on Oct. 19 where all teams for Montgomery County were present. The girls finished third out of 25 for varsity. The boys ended up finishing ninth out of 25 for varsity.

The invitational meets, including Bull Run invitational and Coyote invitational, have no impact on the team’s record. The divisional meets are also not significant, but contribute to their overall record. During these meets the Patriots face off against the teams in their division and the top teams come home with a win in their division. Junior Rebecca Hoerner said, ”It has been a successful season. Everybody has improved a lot and we have grown a lot closer as a team.”.