This year’s cross country team is filled with potential and opportunity. Along with a few new faces and regimens, the team has picked up fresh hopes for what could be one of their best seasons yet.
“I would say this team is the most impressive one that I’ve seen yet,” new assistant coach Anne Etling said.

Etling has worked as a head coach for the CHS cross country team in the past and recently returned from a stay in Milan, Italy, where she also coached a cross country team.
“In the past, in both Milan and Clayton, I felt like I couldn’t even look at the team and say I have five strong runners that really work hard, but this year I do, so that’s exciting,” Etling said.
Returning sophomore Nicole Indovino shares Etling’s excitement.
“There are a lot more people this year,” Indovino said. “More people are showing up to practice week to week and there’s a lot more dedication.”
Head coach Kurtis Werner has high hopes for the team this season.
“I’d like to have a least one or two all-conference runners and have a girls’ team finish in the top two in districts,” Werner said.
Along with Etling, there are some promising new additions to the team this year. Freshman Derrick Stone has become the team’s best male runner and hopes to make it to state this year.
“The thing I most look forward to this season is the meets,” Stone said. “When you go to a meet there’s all these different schools and you can see everybody and hang out with them. It’s just a really great experience.”
The St. Charles Invitational and SLU Invitational are the some of the biggest meets the team will attend, though the district and conference meets carry more importance. The veteran runners each have their own favorites.

“My favorite meet is definitely the Spanish Lake meet because I really like the course,” Indovino said.

But to get to these all important meets, the runners must first train hard. In an average practice when working on distance, the team runs anywhere from 3 to 8 miles. In an average practice when working on speed, the team will do three repetitions of 800m or 1600m sprints. Getting into shape is the biggest challenge for the team.
“We’ve implemented a few more training regimens this year such as more distance work early on,” Werner said. “A lot of our runners are very busy during the summer and don’t get adequate training or anything of that nature.”
Etling agrees that this presents problems for the team at the beginning of the season.
“As every season happens I think that people aren’t running enough in the summers, so when we hit the season hard in the beginning, a lot of runners get injured,” Etling said.
As the season gets rolling, the team will get to run against their big rivals like Ladue, Normandy, and Berkeley and see how they match up. Only time will tell how they will do, but everyone is certainly excited.
“We’ve already made leaps and bounds from where we were last year,” Werner said. “It’s going to be a fun year.”