On Sat. Sept. 28, the girls and boys cross country teams will compete in the MIC meet. Last year, the teams both placed fourth in the conference; however, this season, the boys team is hoping to win the school’s first cross country conference championship. 

“I think this meet is important because it is one of our bigger meets, and our goal this year is to try and make it to the state championships and possibly win,” freshman Ty Garrett, who broke 16:00 last weekend, said. “Each meet keeps on getting bigger and bigger, and we keep on getting closer to our ultimate goal: state. I think it’s going to really show the MIC conference teams what we are capable of doing because we’re really out to win it this year.”

Already this season, the boys team has won the Ben Davis Invitational and recorded a perfect score at the halftime meet against New Pal, while the girls had two top 20 medalists, Sadie Schemmel. and Gabrielle Harrell, atthe Zionsville Invitational. The teams look to build upon this success at MIC.

“Our key to success for this meet will definitely be teamwork. It will definitely be very hard; no race is easy,” senior Gabrielle Harrell said. “But being able to pack up while pushing the pace together will be a key to our team’s success. That will especially be important when the race starts to get tough, mentally and physically.”

In order for the No. 9 boys team to come out on top, they will have to beat No. 4 Carmel and No. 25 North Central, who have elite runners in.  North Central’s Alex Frey and Carmel’s Kole Mathison.

“When we all run together, we end up running pretty well. If we can just keep on doing that, and if it works as well as it does in other meets, I think it will lead us to a good position at MIC,” senior team captain Archit Malik said. “I think it will be extremely difficult because we have good competitors, but I think we have exactly what we need to win it all. We have good team morale, good team connection and we have fast runners who are ready to do whatever it takes.”

The atmosphere of this meet is different compared to previous meets because of the higher stakes.

“This meet will be lots of people who are anxious and nervous to run, all while being  just as excited,” sophomore Hudson Gilstorf said. “It’s a really fun and fast-paced course. Everyone there is excited and has a good mindset. We’re all just trying to get PR’s and to do our best.”

Both teams are hoping to use this meet as a building block for the rest of the season as they look toward the county race next weekend and the start of the post-season.

“It would mean everything if we won MIC,” Malik said. “I think we have one of our best shots this year of winning. It’s going to be difficult, but it is still definitely achievable. What we’re going to do is just go out there and win, take on the challenge by storm. We don’t want to hold back.”