Free State High's boys and girls cross country teams are sporting a new look.
"We have a lot of new kids this year," said first-year FSHS coach Steve Heffernan. "Right now we have approximately 25 more kids than we had last year at the start of the season, and over half our squad is new to cross country. It's going to be exciting to watch them run and learn and see who develops and really starts to shine over the next 10 weeks."
Free State will open its season this morning at Overland Park Aquinas.
The abundance of fresh faces, however, doesn't mean the Firebirds are lacking experience.
On the girls' side, Free State returns all six members of last year's state-qualifying squad, including its top finisher in junior Maija Cheung -- who finished 11th in the state meet at Rim Rock Farm with a time of 13:02.
"Our entire girls squad has really improved a lot," said Heffernan, who replaced coach Ward Brethour in midseason last year. "The varsity girls have been running varsity now for three years. Their first year they showed quite a bit of promise (the first Free State squad to qualify for state). Last year was a little rough for them.
"But right now they're in great shape."
Joining Cheung on the varsity squad for today's meet are seniors Laura Gagnon, Susan Hesse, Betsy Lee and Heather McCullough, and juniors Jackie DuBois (a transfer from Class 4A Russell) and Sarah Underwood.
Also returning is senior Jamie Mitchell, who was 19th at state last year.
As far as the boys "
"We've got four guys in really good shape, and about another five guys who are going to battle for that fifth spot," Heffernan said, citing seniors Aaron Paul and Adam Brunfeldt, junior Ariel Ludwig and sophomore Jason Jenny as the top four.
Competing with those four will be senior Ian McDonald and sophomores Eric Southard and Chris White.
The girls squad claims 11 seniors, while the boys boast seven.
"We have a whole crew of freshman and sophomore girls who, it's their first year," Heffernan said. "A lot of them show promise, but we're just going to have to wait until they get into races to see how it starts to develop for them.
"On the boys' side, we have a lot of first-year juniors out and it's kind of the same situation where we're going to have to wait and watch."
Another positive for the Firebirds this year is they will have the opportunity to compete on their home course -- Rim Rock Farm -- three times this year. Free State is co-hosting the Jayhawk Invitational (Sept. 18) with Lawrence High, and playing host to the Sunflower League meet (Oct. 16) and the state meet (Oct. 30).
Free State anticipates being a factor during that state meet.
"Last year at league, when our varsity boys were healthy, we finished behind Shawnee Mission Northwest and Lawrence High, and those teams later finished 1 and 2 at state," Heffernan said. "We beat everybody else, and there were a lot of ranked teams last year in our league. However, that was the only time we ran healthy.
"I think we're a better team than we were then. Continually working toward being one of the better programs in the state is the goal for the guys."
And for the girls?
"Just their experience, I think, is going to be a major factor this year," Heffernan said. "They really did kind of struggle last year with the adjustment and also with the change in expectations. I think they came in last year expecting to be very good, and it was a bit of a challenge for them.
"I still think they're going to be one of the better programs in the state."
-- Robert Sinclair's phone message number is 832-7185. His e-mail address is rsinclair@ljworld.com.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.