Carmel Girls Cross Country doesn’t appear to be slowing down, except maybe for this week as the team has no meet this Saturday. Around the team and around Carmel the spirits are high as its Homecoming week and the team has their eyes on a state championship.
Taking a look back two weeks ago to the Eagle Classic Invitational down in Brown County the Hounds once again took home the win extending their win tally to 4 on the season. Carmel scored below 50 points once again with a total of just 49 points.
Annabel Pollert led for Carmel once more finishing in second place with a final time of 17:28.60 and Sadie Foley was just .3 seconds behind her to grab third place. Larkin Taylor was also flying with a time of 17:37 claiming 4th place for the Greyhounds. Margo Halle and Anna Yoon brought home the rest of the scoring finishing in 22 and 33.
This win gave the hounds lots of momentum and confidence heading into one of their biggest races of the season Flashrock, raced at Carmel’s home course Northview. Carmel would face 9 State ranked teams including #4 Homestead.
As the race began Carmel looked dominant from the start with Annabel Pollert, Sadie Foley and Larkin Taylor in the lead pack. As the 1k mark hit though problems began, Pollert and Taylor came through flying but Foley was nowhere to be found. Having dealt with injury throughout the season this could prove to be critical to Carmel. While Foley is Carmel top runner and leader of the team Carmel still knows how to get wins in her absence. Carmel has preached the next man up mentality all season and it shows in their performances.
Coming into the finish Pollert was able to claim second place in 17:22 followed by Taylor in third with 17:37. The rest of the Carmel runners dug deep in the hot 80 degree weather placing 15th, 24th and 26th by Margo Halle, Kaitlyn Oshimura, and Anna Yoon.
Carmel JV was even more dominant grabbing spots 1-7 as well as 9, 10, 12 to round out their top ten. Senior Maddie Cox led the way with a dominant time of 20:06.8 finishing over 1 minutes faster than the next runner.
With a week off this week I was able to catch up with Seniors Sadie Foley and Ellie Smith to talk about the season.
“Its been really team focused” Ellie said talking about the preparation and aspirations for this season “we won state in track and cross country the previous year so we have a lot of high hopes for this year and high expectations”
So far Carmel’s been living up to expectations but they still have a large task ahead of them if they want to become state champions.
The Greyhounds are eyed in our state and even making the Nike Nationals meet. “The biggest goal we have is winning the state meet as a team and then qualifying for nationals this year” Foley said, talking about the season goals “Individually, I’m hoping for a top ten finish at the state meet and contribute to that team championship.”
Everyone is hoping to see Sadie Foley back out there after facing a step back last week.
Looking ahead, Carmel heads back down to Terra Haute on October 4th for Nike Twiglight. One of the largest meets of the year at a legendary course that brings in some of the best teams from around the region to race late at night under the lights. Its sure to be a exciting one so make sure you show out for our Greyhounds on October 4th.
Listen to the full interviews with Sadie Foley and Ellie Smith below.
