On the morning of Halloween, the girl’s cross country team was not getting ready to trick-or-treat. Instead, the team was heading to Terre Haute to compete in the the IHSAA State Finals meet.

Sophomore Abi Little was only focused on one thing: running well and making the podium. Hours later, she completed her goal as she ran across the finish line.

“Going into state, my goal was to get on the podium,” Little said. “It was not my best race and it was really hard to power through, but I ended up coming in 19th and making the podium.”

Behind the scenes, each member of the cross country team puts in a lot of work year-long to train.

“It doesn’t stop,” junior Susanna Sharples-Gordon said. “We started training in June and then we go until state, and then we have a week off, and then we start into track. We have three weeks off all year.”

As a team, the cross country girls ranked 15th in the state out of 24 schools qualified for the IHSAA State Finals.

“As a team, our times were not the best, but everyone put in a great effort and we got 15th overall,” Sharples-Gordon said. “It was a fantastic experience and we’ll definitely use what we learned this year to do better next year.”

According to the girl’s cross country coach Scheele, this is the first time the team has qualified for the state meet since 2010.

“Hamilton County is the mecca for runners, meaning this is where it’s at,” Scheele said. “Nobody wants to come into Hamilton County and compete against us, because you’re competing against the best and we’re one of those best schools.”

But as Scheele says to inspire his team, “Sometimes you’re gonna have some lumps in your potatoes but you just gotta mash them out.”