By Zach Curiale, Staff Writer — Second out of 22. Now that’s impressive.

On Aug. 27, the girls cross country team competed in the Golden Eagle Invitational at GlenOak High School. This is an elite cross country meet where teams from all over Northeast Ohio come to compete. This was the first meet for the girls of the 2016 season.

The girls team ended up getting second place out of 22 teams. Scoring points for us at the top five positions were Grace and Hannah Werren, Megan Wertz and Taylor and Karly Brightman. Preparing for a big meet like this, especially for it to be the first meet of the year, can be challenging, but head coach Scott Ferrell knows what he is doing when preparing for such a meet.

“We did a lot of work on the course”, Ferrell said. “Our course has challenging hills and terrain to get the girls ready. Having the meet at our school was a huge advantage to the girls. They were able to know the course inside and out so they knew what to expect going into the meet.”

When the girls spoke about practice the weeks leading up to the big meet, they talked on different aspects of preparation.

“Practice was very focused on our team,” Brightman said. ¨We knew Jackson and some other big competitors were going to be there but we just had to focus on us and what we had to do.¨

The Werren sisters pulled a one- two finish in this meet. If you’re thinking ¨How do they do that?,¨ then you are not alone. There is a fine tradition in their household that takes place two days before meets.

On Thursdays, the girls have a hard workout then go home and carb-load on pasta to give them energy. Fridays are a day of fun and games for the team to boost morale and confidence leading up to the meet. This includes Capture the Flag and numerous other team games. Then finally, on Saturday before the meet the sisters ¨jam out¨, get pumped, get ready to go and get on the starting line with their team. Moving into the regular season now, there are some high expectations and goals for the team. The girls and even the coach agree that the ¨State meet” is a big part of those goals.

The girls also have set their own personal goals for the season too. The Werren sisters have a ¨goal chart¨ that is broken down into weekly, daily, and meet to meet. Wertz has a personal goal to go sub 20 minutes by the end of the year.

Taylor Brightman has a goal of beating her younger sister, Karly Brightman, since she also is on Varsity.

Karly had a very good first season and varsity meet, finishing in fifth for the girls. This was a ¨Nice surprise¨ as coach Ferrell said.

The girls placed fourth at the Boardman compeition this past weekend, first at Jackson and first at Marlington. This weekend they will compete in the Malone Invitational where the team will face most of their Federal League foes.

[Updated Aug. 19, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]