By Erin Goldman, Sports Editor

Last season, four of the seven varsity boys’ cross country runners graduated. Despite the loss, this year’s team has maintained the level of success achieved last season.

"We were the most stacked team in the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) history last year," senior captain Steven Mickey said. "However, a common misconception is that we don’t have people to replace the seniors."

It is now up to the upperclassmen to fill the void the seniors left and become examples for the rest of the team.

"Alex Kleinman ’07 and Jeff Talmadge ’07 were my first friends at Greenhill," Austin said. "They made practice fun, but now it is up to [the upperclassmen] to be the role models and give the younger teammates the same experience I had."

Underclassmen have been stepping up as well.

"Sophomore Pete Rodrigue and freshman Eriq Robinson are going to be vital assets this season," Steven said.

Andres was the third fastest runner at the SPC championships. He shaved 35 seconds off his Arlington Invitational run since last year while Austin shaved off 82 seconds.

"All four runners we lost were scoring members of the team," head coach Mike Krueger said. "The loss was tough last year, but Andres and Austin are the best one-two combo in the SPC conference."

The team has its smallest membership in five years. There are 17 members on the boys’ team and only nine on the girls’ cross country team.                                             photo courtesy of mark lopalo

"Although we have a small team now, the Middle School program has a lot of promising runners," Coach Krueger said.

This season, the team has participated in fewer meets during September than other schools in order to get more practice and be more prepared for later competitions.

"Cross country is not like other sports where you can play a game every week," Austin said. "In the past, we raced every weekend, but a week in between each race gets us mentally prepared for the following week’s meet."

This season’s captains, Andres, Austin, and Steven, take on a number of responsibilities as the team’s leaders.

"It’s my job to convince my teammates to run on. I need to make sure they are well-hydrated, stretched, and not pushing themselves to the point of injury," Steven said.

The team will be competing in the Chili Pepper Festival at the University of Arkansas on Oct. 13.

"It’s the most fun meet of the year because of how perfect the weather is and because we get to go on a long trip and do team bonding," Steven said.