Jonathan Alder’s cross country team is combined with the junior high team and both are coached by Justin Creps. This is Creps’s first year officially coaching the Jonathan Alder cross country team. Senior Delaney Geitgey stated, “I really like the coach. He’s new this year and he brings a lot of energy and passion to the team.”

    Sophomore Rena Kirts stated, “He’s pretty cool. He’s nice and he is improving the team as a whole.” To make a varsity team, there has to be 10 girls and then there are three junior varsity runners. The boys’ cross country team needs five runners to score at their meets, which sometimes they do not have enough. Districts for cross country are October 25, regionals are the week after that and states are the week after regionals.

    Geitgey broke the school record her freshman year, running a 5k in 19 minutes and 27 seconds. Geitgey stated, “I really wish the boys’ team consistently had enough runners to make a full team. It’s inspiring although heartbreaking to see how hard they work, even when they know they can’t score points as a team because they simply don’t have enough runners. There’s a lot of potential with the guys who are running, and more guys should join. Next year’s team is going to be amazing with the junior high boys coming up, so any guy who wants to go to states with the team next year should start running.”