After working hard since the beginning of the year, 12 LCM Cross Country runners traveled to Claiborne Park this past Monday, Oct. 19, to compete against seven other schools in the district meet. The boys’ team brought home the second place trophy, while the girls team placed third overall.

Sophomore Rayce Piper is in his second year on the team and placed fifth in the varsity boys category.

“I feel like the results were pretty good, since second isn’t too bad,” Piper said. “We were really aiming to take first, though.”

The team trained consistently for the district meet because it is the deciding factor in who advances to the Regional meet.

“We prepared for district by pushing ourselves a little harder during practice, and then running outside of practice at Claiborne park to get used to the course,” Piper said. “The team encourages each other a lot, at meets by cheering for each other as they finish down the shoot, and at practice by pushing each other to do our best and get the most out of our potential.”

While LCM took 2nd place overall as a combined score from the team, freshman Eli Peveto took home another first place medal in the varsity category. The other boys results are as follows: Blake Kresser – seventh, Cameron Blanchard – 12th, Jackson Baeza – 15th, JC Copley – 31st and Brad Couture – 36th.

The girls team was led by sophomore Olivia Keltz, who placed ninth overall with a time of 13:53.17 in the 2-mile run. The other girls results are as follows: Kilon Gillis – 11th, Kylee Locke – 18th, Alora Jones – 26th and Megan McKinley – 27th.

The team will compete at Regionals this weekend, in which they will strive for a chance to advance to the State meet.

“Cross Country has been great this year,” Piper said. “I’ve made a lot of new friends and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for our team.”