On Thursday, October 16, Belleville High School’s Cross Country team attended the KLAA Championships at Manly W. Bennett State Park. Many runners showed a very impressive performance, with 43% of runners achieving a PR or a SR. All together, the JV boys team showed the greatest improvement in times throughout the season.
One runner to highlight is freshman Robert Landrum, who went from a 32:17.9 at the season opener at Lamplighter, to a stellar decrease at 23:49.3 at the KLAA Championship on Thursday. Additionally, senior captain Kaylee Rupnow achieved goals of hers as well. After the KLAA championships, she says “This season I wanted to beat my PR of 24:10, and I ended up doing it twice.”
Another notable meet from the team was a tri-meet held at John Glenn High School on Tuesday, October 7. The Varsity girls swept the leaderboard for the girl’s race, Belleville securing spots one through six. Those places are held by Lila VanAssche, Lillian Bryan, Shayla Wendt, Kaylee Rupnow, Megan Mulvenna, and Mia Shrader.
Diving deeper into the season, the team has had the largest number of runners than ever before. Coach Paige Fordice says “I’m very proud, and I feel like my coach would be very proud.” Up until recently, past seasons have not recorded more than 30 runners, with many new additions to the team as well as athletes returning for another season.
Going forward, the Belleville Cross Country team will be running at Regionals this Saturday, October 25 with high hopes of some qualifying for State Championships.
