XCiting Start to a Great Season!

By Allie Kang

On September 19th at 10:15 in the morning, Glenelg’s Girl’s Freshman/Sophomore Cross Country (XC) Team lined up at the starting line and waited for the gunfire to initiate the start of the three-mile race. After an arduous run through the Centennial campus, the girl’s team placed second with a score of 61 points-- following Broadneck High School by 37 points (The smaller amount of points a school has the better). Throughout the meet, however, Glenelg’s Girl’s Team was closely trailed by Atholton, with a difference of 7 points.

At the start of the race, the majority of the Gladiators were confidently leading the pack of runners. As the running continued, the spread between the girls on the team started to gradually expand, making the team’s overall score increase over time. 
“The Glenelg girls team just needs to improve on their times while also their grouping. We want everyone in the top 5 to be under 21 [minutes for three mile time] by the end of the season while also being less than 60 seconds apart,” stated Coach Lindsay Metzler, one of the head coaches.


As girls from different teams started to cross the finish line, hundreds of teammates, coaches, and family members cheered them on from the sides of the track. As for Glenelg, Sophomore Milana Gurvich finished 3rd for individual scores with a three-mile time of 22:12. The second best Glenelg runner, Brooke Birckhead, placed 11th out of 113 participants in total, with an overall time of 23:18, having approximately a one minute gap in between Gurvich.
The girl’s team, however, anticipated this rank due to the strong runners present at Glenelg. “After racing the meet, I believed that our team would be in the top 5 because all of our runners pushed themselves to improve their personal records (PR). A lot of the runners in the race were also racing for the first time, and did a great job for their first meet,” Freshman runner Brooke Snellman says. 


After reflecting on this meet, both head coaches, Philip Johnson and Lindsay Metzler are continuing to support the cross country team, as a whole, to improve the runners’ abilities. Snellman continues, “...We have three amazing coaches, who work to help us improve as a team. Our runners are also very hardworking and help each other improve and stay motivated. Cross country, is much different from other sports, in the sense that we aren’t focused on winning, but we’re focused on improving. We don’t have any weaknesses because we are always striving for improvement and we are working together to be the best team.”
As the meet came to an end, the Gladiators tiredly, yet proudly, left the school campus with a trophy. The next race that Glenelg will be attending will take place on Wednesday, September 25 at Mount Hebron High School. Stick around to see how the Glenelg Girl’s Cross Country Team will do in their upcoming meet!