Over the weekend, on Oct. 28, the boys cross country team went to state and finished in fifth place out of 32 teams at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence.

Seven boys went to state and ran a 5K. Zachary Pope, head coach, said, “All seven boys set personal best times for that particular course—Rim Rock Farm. It is a very challenging course with lots of steep hills, and our average time was 16:49 which is really fast.”

Their goal for state was to run seven great races and see what happened. It seems they have met that goal.

Lucas Shryock, senior, placed ninth overall out of 104 runners which earned him All State honors (top 20 runners at state).

Shryock said, “The experience was amazing! I was very happy that I got to share the experience with my teammates, coaches, and my family.”

This is the team’s second year in a row qualifying for state after 11 years of not qualifying. Last year, the team placed 10^th, and this year was the highest placing for the boys team at state since 2000.

Pope said, “The best part of this experience was seeing how how excited the boys were after the race. They were so happy, and you could tell that all of the hard work had been worth it.”