After finishing sixth at the State meet last season, Coach Eric Bronson has high expectations for this year’s squad that only lost two seniors.
“I think we can do even bigger and better with the girls this year,” Bronson said. “I fully expect to return to State this year and hopefully we can finish in the top three. That’s my optimistic goal so far.”
Whether the team can finish that high remains to be seen, but an excuse they won’t have is not having enough runners. This year’s team will have 17 runners, with seven boys and 10 girls. This team will also be fairly experienced, with just three freshmen on the team.
On the boys side of things, senior Karson Becker returns after finishing 19th as an individual at State last season. This year, Bronson is looking to Becker to lead the entire team to Wamego for the State meet.
“This is the first time in a few years we’ve really had a full boys team,” Bronson said. “At the 1A level, we can count four boys as a team in the postseason, but that doesn’t leave much wiggle room. So with the seven boys, we’ll be better.”
Bronson said the team could make it to State if they put the work in.
“Last year, there were just six full teams at our region, and none of them were particularly strong,” he said. “So it would just take beating a few of those teams to get us to State. So just having the numbers will pretty well put us in line to do well if we work at it.”
As for the girls team, Bronson expects great things from his squad. He lost two seniors, but he has several newcomers that will help balance things out. Just like the boys, having the numbers makes things easier for the team as they continue to improve. The team will even have one dual athlete, with Allison Sanders playing volleyball in addition to running cross country this fall.
Skyline will host a meet on Sept. 9, and Bronson said the event continues to grow with each year.
“We are hosting a home meet, and it will be the third time we’ve done it,” he said. “It’s gone pretty well the last two years, and this year we have 14 teams coming out. So we’re excited about that.”
The team is excited to start the season as well. Luckily, they won’t have to wait long, as the team will be making a trip the first week of school.
“With school starting so late, we’ve actually got a meet on the second day of school, so we’ll hit the ground running.”
