Hannah Dutler ’16 prepares for her races by visualizing them and spending time with her team. After a one-hour warm-up she sits with her team members, listens to “Pirates of the Caribbean” music and ties her lucky ribbon into her hair hoping to win her race.

The girls track season starts on Jan. 19 and the first meet is on Feb. 11. After doing well in girls cross country, the girls track team considers new goals for its upcoming season.

“Hopefully will bring enthusiasm and strength from their training [in the cross country season] and the belief of how good they are,” girls cross country coach Greg Frandsen said.

This enthusiasm will help them as they train throughout the season, Frandsen said.

“We definitely need to work on our speed a little bit,” Dutler said. “Track races are a lot shorter than cross country so we don’t gave as good of an agility base.”

Although distance runners have the same training as cross country, sprinters who ran cross country have to make the transition into doing more speed based activities.

“You also want to get faster,” Frandsen said. “I think their endurance was very good and every race is a chance to compete and to challenge yourself or to know how to race a little better.”

Although it is not required, most members of the cross country and track teams participate in winter running club to build a base for track season. As the runners begin their track season they will not only focus on their running individually, but also as a group.

“Training wise we have a lot of endurance,” Dutler said. “I think we built a bond as a team during the cross country season. It’s going to be really important during track especially with relays and team events.”

The girls cross country team placed seventh during their season and hopes to continue placing, which could only be achieved through the training they go through.

“I’m very happy with the way the season went and the way all of our training paid off in the end,” Sarah Barcelona ’19 said.

Even with Illinois being one of the top states in track and cross-country, Frandsen is looking optimistic.

“I’m looking forward to a good season,” Frandsen said. “We have a lot of very good returning athletes coming back and a lot of state qualifiers so we’re hoping they can keep everything rolling for us.”