While their official season isn’t scheduled to begin until late February, Broomfield High School’s Track and Field team is well underway with preseason practices.

The team’s long-distance crew, which is made up of athletes who primarily focus on the 800 meter, 1600 meter, and 3200 meter races, is ramping up their training to prepare for the start of the season, on many days, getting to the school at 6:30 AM for practice.

Many of these distance athletes also participated in cross country during the fall.

The girls XC team was able to qualify for state after a successful performance at regionals, but with a state performance that didn’t go as they’d hoped, they are working to improve their game come spring track.

The girls varsity cross country team consisted of Maelynn Higgins (11), Norah Powers (11), Paisley Williamson (11), Vilate Carwin (9), Vanessa Deeming (10), Iris Stanfill (12), Emily Webber (9), and alternate Haley Jackson (10). All had a significant race at the regionals meet, everyone contributing to help qualify for the state cross country meet.

The state cross country course was, by most standards, a difficult one, consisting of many hills and challenging terrain.

At the state meet, Higgins crossed the finish line first for the Broomfield team.

Carwin was the second Broomfield girl to cross the line.

Williamson finished in third for the team.

Powers crossed the line fourth on the Broomfield team.

Stanfill barely passed Deeming by one second, keeping her in fifth on the team and Deeming in sixth.

Webber crossed the line seventh on the team.

Not everyone had their best races at state, but for many, it felt like an accomplishment just crossing the finish line.

Each of the athletes finished their 3.1 miles with a different time: Higgins (19:41), Carwin (20:57), Williamson (21:04), Powers (21:09), Stanfill (21:11), Deeming (21:12), and Webber (23:00). While their goal was to get in the top five or even top ten for team scores, that did not happen, for the girls ended up in 18th.

Reflecting on that outcome, Stanfill said, “So, as a team, I don’t think we did as well as we had hoped, but I think I really enjoyed running with everyone on the team. I think it was a great team bonding experience; I wouldn’t change it. I think that individually, I’m happy with my race, and I think that we had a lot of people run well. Just because we didn’t get the team score we envisioned doesn’t mean that we didn’t work hard and that it wasn’t a great season.”

In the end, the girls finished as a team and got to close out the season running at the state meet.

All of the lessons which they learned at that state cross country meet will, without a doubt, be kept in mind as the track season looming on the horizon nears closer and closer.