The West Branch Cross Country team, as well as other West Branch sports, will be noticing some changes to this year’s season due to Covid-19. Spectators will only be allowed when the school district permits them to be at meets. As well, social distancing must be enforced at practices and at meets. Also, because of Covid-19, there will be fewer meets this year. In total, there will be eight meets this year for cross country. Covid-19 rules for WBXC at this time are no more than 250 spectators, meaning there is not much of a chance of running at the Big Valley Invitational and Red Flash Invitational. The Altoona Invitational is still on at this time. During the events, each spectator will have to wear masks. If not, it will result in the event getting canceled or spectators will not be able to attend the WBXC events until further notice.
The Cross Country team will be starting its season on Thursday, September 17th. This meet will be hosted by West Branch and starts at 4:00 p.m. This year the runners have been working hard and have dedicated many hours to improving their running times in order to have a successful season. The speed and distance workouts throughout August and September have proven that the team will have great potential at meets. Senior Joey Trimpey said, “If you don’t drop, you can keep running.”
The upcoming season will have eight returning letter winners after losing only four seniors last year. The returning letter winners, along with their best times, are Justin Mulhollem (19:08), Hayes Jones (22:08), Jack Danko (21:24), Samuel Guerra (23:37), Doug Kolesar (21:11), Jett Houser (22:07), Erika Alexander (23:15) and Brianna Bone (24:37). The XC squad showed potential throughout summer practices meaning that some new records will be set this season. The coaches for this year’s cross country season will be Jane Catanzaro, Josh Carr, Tracey Bone, and Dave Catanzaro.
