After success for most of the season, the Prep cross country team prepares for the final stretch of the season and the district meet. After a good start to the season, the team is rapidly preparing for the near upcoming district meet. Beyond that, Hershey. 

Expectations before the season were quite high. Many people saw this team as a contender but still young and able to improve. 

“Our expectations for the team going into the season was to really gel as a team,” said Junior runner Kody Klein. “This year we wanted to be supportive of each other and win districts.”

Lots of figures inside the program like what the team has to offer about midway through the season. Klein himself has expressed his thoughts. 

“We are seeing our goals to be exceeded at the end of the season at the pace we’re at right now,” said Klein. “We are doing amazingly well so far this year.”

To start off the season, the team hosted Pittsburgh power North Allegheny. Although they lost 41-20, senior Devan Bailey finished fifth, and junior Andrew Brown finished third. 

The team then went down and paid a visit of their own to Pittsburgh and had a strong showing in The Red, White and Blue Classic. Then a few days later, they lost to Meadville in a region meet by one point. 

After that loss, the team was quick to get back up into top form. A few days after losing to Meadville, CPXC won the Commodore Perry Invite. 

“After I finished, I looked back and saw Kody [Klein] coming in right behind me, and a hundred meters back I saw Andrew Brown and Kaemen Smith running together,” Devan said. “It was just a nervous minute that our fifth man, Luke Brown, preformed well enough to secure the victory.”

After a good showing at the large and ultra-competitive PIAA Foundation Meet, the team then finished 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 in a region match against Erie High. 

The next meet was the McQuaid Invitational, another competitive run, in which Prep finished 8th against nationally ranked teams. 

McDowell also showed up to McQuaid, but Devan and the team are not shying away from their region match on Oct. 8. 

“If you scored the McQuaid Invite like it was a dual meet, we would have beat McDowell 25-31,” Devan said. “I would expect a solid win against them this coming Tuesday on the Meadville course.”

In order to get a good result against their rivals, the top runners are resting this Saturday instead of going to Harborcreek to compete in the Dirty Dawg Invite. 

After the Dirty Dawg and McDowell meets, the team will then run at Alden High School outside of Buffalo, NY.

“It feels good to be running in the front and finishing right with some of my teammates,” said Kody. “It feels good to represent myself, my school, and teammates in a good way.”