The girls cross country team season came to a strong end. Junior Reese Martin, Cate Rossomanno, and senior Mia Brown qualified for state for their 3rd year in a row. 

With a few rough patches, Martin said she was proud of herself for being able to persevere through and make it to state. 

“[I was proud for] overcoming not finishing a race and bouncing back from a bad district race and placing at state

Following through, she said racing at state was unlike any other race and the feeling of getting All-State was exciting,” Martin said.

She said the support she received made for a happy ending. With getting another All-State award, she hopes that next year she can get it again and beat the school record. 

“The state experience was way different from any other year because it was just me and my 2 teammates. I told myself to have fun while racing and not stress about it. Finishing, I realized I had earned All-State for the 3rd year in a row and it was bittersweet knowing. I didn’t think it was possible. And to see my family and all the people come to watch my race made me happy. Right now I am tied with the record for most XC All-State and hopefully next year I beat it,” Martin said. 

Brown said even though the season didn’t go exactly as she planned, she is extremely satisfied with herself for completing her goal. 

“I am really proud of how this season went. I accomplished my high school goal of breaking 20 minutes and I’m very proud of the season the team had. I didn’t end the season exactly the way I hoped but I really enjoyed my last season on the cross country team,” Brown said.

Even with not having the best outcome, even the small moments leading up to state, Brown said, made the whole experience one to remember. 

“State was a lot of fun. Driving down to columbia with the team is always a blast. We race on the Mizzou course for state which is a really great course. I wasn’t super ecstatic with my placing at state, but I know I did what I could that day. My feelings after the race were bittersweet. I was proud of the season we all had but I was also sad for having my last race ever,” Brown said.

As Rossomano started the race, she said she felt she was in favor of a positive outcome. With a bit of a tough race, she had to overcome the struggles to push through and finish strong. 

“State was pretty rough for me. I felt really good for a majority of the race and had really high expectations for how the race would go, but unfortunately I ended up passing out a couple times and basically crawled across the finish. So it definitely didn’t go the way I wanted it to. It was kind of frustrating because I had and still have no idea what went wrong, but I’m still really happy with how the race went. No matter what everyone still tried their best and I was so happy to see Reese get All-State. It just stinks that the one time I have a bad race turns out to be state, but at the end of the day it’s just a race,” Rossomano said.

Overall though, Rossomano said she is content with how the season went for her and her teammates, especially with all the hard work they put in to make it happen. 

“This season I’m proud of my team’s determination and seeing everyone push themselves so much. I’m proud of my results too from districts because I feel like I’ve been working pretty hard all summer and fall and I’m glad it paid off at districts,” Rossomanno said. 

Rossomano finished off the season with having finished some 5k races with the fastest times in our schools history. Along with Martin, Brown, and Rossomano, ending the season placed in the top nine fastest cross country runners to ever race at Summit.