Cross country has always been a sport at Grayslake Central that constantly breaks school records. With consistent wins at meets, the runners of GCHS are proving themselves worthy of a place at state yet again.

“In previous years ,we lost a lot of our top runners,” said junior Emma Clapp. She has improved immensely over the season, as her mile times continue to drop after each meet. She hopes that with months of training she can break her personal record and eventually be able to run with the team in Peoria during the state meet.

“It’s a new team this year and we’re still adapting to that but with the rest of the season, I think we’re going to start showing improvement together,” said Clapp. The team’s coaches have told them time and time again that their goal is always to improve, and through this, they hope to make it to state.

“I wouldn’t say we’re excellent like last year, but we’re getting there. We still need to have that connection and bond, and some of the varsity team is doing okay but we need to work on it,” said junior Roman Tovar. The team has been learning how to improve not only their individual runners, but to progress all together.

“We struggled a lot at first but our girls’ team is really good at pack running now, and the varsity team is really tight,” said Clapp. While facing state, the team is working hard everyday to break their times and make their way to the finish line with the support of the school behind them. At regionals, the girls’ team placed fourth, while the boys’ team placed sixth. The team is very optimistic and feels as though they have a good chance at making it, and hopefully placing at state.