By Coach Ashley Emmons

The Broadus cross country team is off to a great start! The team has attended three meets so far this season. Their first meet was in Huntley where Rachel Rasmussen and Samantha Perry were the only two runners from Broadus. It was a hot day in Huntley and the course was deceiving because although it was flat, there was a long straight stretch for about a mile and a half where no fans could cheer or watch. Even with the tough conditions, Rachel was still able to get a time that qualified her for state. Samantha also ran a great race and did an incredible job running in her first ever cross country meet!

The three state CC qualifiers thus far. Samantha Perry, Rheanna Schroeder, and Rachel Rasmussen.

The next race was at Crow Agency. This is a meet that is notorious for a long steep hill. The hill is roughly a mile and a half long and the incline gradually gets steeper as you go up. The team prepared for this race by running hill repeats on "B" hill in Broadus. This is definitely one of the toughest courses the team sees all season long, and the Broadus girls crushed this course! Rachel, for the second time got a state qualifying time, roughly two minutes faster than she ran in Huntley. Samantha also qualified for state at this meet and ran roughly five minutes faster than her previous time. This was the first meet for Rheanna Schroeder, and as a freshman running her first cross country race, she qualified for state! To top it off, after all three girls crossed the finish line they were smiling and saying how much they loved competing on this course.

The third race of the season was at Red Lodge. This was the biggest race that we attended so far, and there were over 600 runners at the meet. Rachel and Rheanna were the only two runners from Broadus this weekend and both of them ran very well. Rheanna ran her personal best, and Rachel ran very close to her best time this year. Their performance was even more impressive due to an increase in elevation of 2,500 feet from Broadus to Red Lodge!