After an abundance of top five finishes during the season, the boys cross country team ran away with fifth place at the state championships.

The group was led once again by the junior tandem of Clayton Wilkerson and Andres Engle, as they finished 12th and 17th place overall, respectively.

For head coach Brittney Lanehart, this high-performing combination did not surprise her, as they have been the frontrunners for the team all year.

“They were tremendous,” she said, “and really led us up front.”

Junior Sydney Jensen advanced to the state championships as an individual runner.
With the talent and experience her runners now have, next year looks to be promising for Lanehart’s group.

“All five of our scoring runners are coming back,” she said, “and that’s what has brought us out of this pretty excited.”
While a common theme amongst runners and their teammates is to approach an important race like all the others, Lanehart wasn’t going to sugarcoat it for her group.

“We aim for this meet all year,” she said. “You have to be prepared to be crowded with good runners.”

The potential talent is waiting to be unleashed. Still, Lanehart’s runners aren’t finished yet and are ready to win a state title.

“We expect more of ourselves than anybody,” she said. “They ran as good as we’ve run all year, but we’re hungry to try and get on that podium.”