Recently, The Lovejoy Girl’s Cross Country team brought home the title of state champion. The team had been working extremely hard to come back with the gold medal after nearing a victory last season.
“Winning was such an accomplishment for us as a team,” said Talia Orshalick, a junior and runner on the team,“winning has been our goal since last year’s state meet so it was exciting and rewarding to finally get the title back.”
The race was close towards the last two miles of the meet with Smithson Valley High school ahead and Lovejoy close behind. However, the girls were determined to win with their teammates in mind.
“My biggest motivation was my team,” said Orshalick,”knowing how hard every girl worked for this, and how much love we all put into the sport gave me the most motivation of all.”
The race was incredibly successful with a lot of the girls achieving their fastest times of the season.
“It definitely took a lot of heart to stay focused the whole time,” said Camryn Benson, a senior and XC athlete, “I tried to set mini goals and think about my teammates.”
The recent win has been incredibly exciting for the team and Lovejoy as a whole. The Cross Country team is known for its close knit and supportive community, and winning has been a great example of that as the team has celebrated each other’s victories and the hard work they put into the season.
“I think winning gave our team some more confidence and it proved that what we put our goal at the beginning of the season was very accomplishable for us,” said Benson.
The team’s hard work and perseverance led to an incredible win and memories that would carry on long after the season.
“The highlight of my race had to have been getting to hear from Coach Littlefield that we had won state together! It was so surreal and just getting to watch all of our hard work pay off meant everything to our team!” said Benson.
