On Saturday, November 7, 2020 the cross country team closed out their outstanding season with many great performances at their state competition in Carrollton, Georgia. 

Some of Mt. Pisgah’s top runners placed within the top 100 runners in the state for single A private schools, with senior Ava Trankina placing in 37th, senior Belen Izquierdo placing in 57th,  junior Matthew Dworkin placing in 25, and sophomore Micheal Lynch in 66th place. 

“The girls and guys teams both placed very well and the girls did right as planned” said Izquierdo. 

Head coach of the cross country team, Ms. Payne, contributes much of the team’s success to a stepping up of team leaders on both the girls and boys teams. 

“We had our goals set for both teams and with lots of returning seniors on the girl’s and boy’s teams. This helped with the team leadership all way around.”

As goals seemd to be  a main focus for the team as the season progressed, senior, Morgan Boylan, expressed how important itw as for them to stay fcosued on their gooals all throughout the season. 

Boylan, much like coach Payne, attributed team success to the rise up of leaders, but also said,

“We all worked hard and set goals for ourselves that we met.” 

She expressed how holding each other accountable in and out of practice also helped the team grow together and get better with each run. 

Izquierdo also attributed the teams’  sucess to the building up of one another. 

“Our success this year was powered through us building each other up and because it was so many of our last seasons together. We were very motivated and determined to make our mark” said Izquerido. 

The team made it a point to focus on the bettering of one another and growing together as a team. 

In order to help the team come together Boylan created the new role of team bonding coordinator. 

“I invented the position so as a team we would get the chance to have team dinner the night before each race” 

Team dinners allowed for the runners to be able to have a night off and spend time with each other before race day. Many on the team felt that dinners allowed for them to take their focus away from stressing over the meet and instead just being with their fellow teammates and friends.  

Boylan hopes this is a role that will continue on into future seasons because of its impactful role in this year’s season. 

Boylan, personally, had an outstanding senior season as she met her goals and continued to surpass them as the season progressed. 

Boylan had set a goal for the season to run 3.1 miles under 25 minutes. 

“I met my season goal at Warpath which was sub 25 when I ran a time of 24:50, but then I set a personal record of 23:44 at our region meet which I wasn’t really expecting to do.” 

Boylan described the ending of the season as “Bittersweet.” She went on to say, “I’m really proud of myself and my teammates because we all did really well this season and it was super exciting making it to state. However, I already miss it more than I thought I would.”