Senior runners of the women’s cross country team help start off stretches before a practice leading up to the MIC tournament. McCormack, pictured far right, is excited to see how the team will perform in their upcoming race.

On Sept. 22 at 9 a.m., the CHS women’s cross country team will begin the MIC Championship meet. According to head coach Andy Dalton, the team is looking strong, and with good weather ahead for the meet, he expects a good performance from his runners. This year’s main competition for the team in the MIC will be Pike, compared to years past when the schools in the MIC traditionally weren’t strong in cross country.

“This year Pike has a very strong cross country team so we are going to have to run our best in order to win the MIC on Saturday. If we run our best, then we’ll be fine, but everyone has to show up,” Dalton said.

As a second year head cross country coach for the women’s team, Dalton has had to make adjustments to his coaching based on each group of runners from year to year, but also on how other schools compare. According to Dalton, the state of Indiana is becoming better at cross country on the whole, which adds more competition for CHS.

“Every year, what schools are strong and what schools aren’t strong is different, whether we’re strong or not is different too. Three or four years ago we had a very strong team so we could go to a lot of meets, and have a lot easier chance of winning,” Dalton said. “The rest of the state has gotten a lot better which is great for the sport, not as great for us, because now we have to be that much better to compete and continue to succeed.”

Senior Mea McCormack is excited to see what the team can do and where it needs to go for the postseason.

“This season has showed great improvement for our Varsity roster,” McCormack said. “I think the MIC could go either way. The MIC five kilometer course is very flat so it should be a good indicator where our team stands for the upcoming tournament season.”

Regardless of the MIC, Dalton is pleased to see that the team is getting better by the week. He hopes to keep his eye on the team to beat for the tournament season.

“We are getting a little bit better every week. On paper we’re not the best team in the state. We got ranked this week number one because we beat the number one and they didn’t win any races,” Dalton said. “They’re (Ft. Wayne Carroll) still the team to beat regardless of the rankings. We’re getting closer to beating them every week.”