The LT girls cross country team quickly inches up to the line and gets into position. There is a moment of complete silence and stillness until the gunshot pops, creating a rush of 200 girls sprinting to get to the front of the pack.

The LT girls, remembering that they as a team have not made it to state in three consecutive years, were determined to make their mark on this state meet, Megan Ng ’17 said.

“Our race plan for state and every race is smart, tough, fast,” Ng said. “We want to be smart the first mile, tough the second and fast the third.”

After a very competitive race, the girls placed seventh which was their standing going into the meet. Sarah Barcelona ’19 finished as an all state runner, placing 18^th with a personal best of 16:57 and was followed by Vanessa Flaherty ’16 and Emily Henkel ’19.

“Having my team here I felt like I had something to fight for, something to work towards,” Flaherty said. “It was a much better experience than last year.”

As of now the team looks to the future to continue to improve in track and in the next cross country seasons, head coach Stetson Steele said.

“Throughout the season we wanted to compete against some of the best teams in the state and we did at different invitationals,” Steele said. “We did it [at state] and I think that has given the girls the right mindset for the future.”