Saturday morning, most people are asleep, but not the boys and girls on the cross country team.

The cross country team was hard at work running their first meet at Burke Lake. Despite not meeting their expectations last season, the Cross Country team is setting its standards high for the new season and are already meeting expectations, starting off strong in their first meet.

Annandale was racing in the competitive company of dozens of schools some being Woodson, Lake Braddock, and Marshall.  

The meet went pretty well for most people, especially in girls Cross Country Coach Phil Harris’ eyes.

“It went well, we had a freshman runner that won the varsity group. And that’s a freshman, that was outstanding, upsetting the number one runner,” said Coach Harris.

And indeed that freshman girl, Julia Ghiselli did amazing.

“She ran a record 17:28, which is one of the fastest times on that course, ” said Coach Harris.

Coach sees ways of improvement for the team, even after Saturday’s decisive meet.

“We need to do more tempo runs, a lot more tempo runs to get ready for the conference, ” said Coach Harris. He believes that these tempo runs will improve the team’s overall 3 mile time for conference.

Senior runner Janice Milian also ran the race on Saturday, however due to a sickness, she wasn’t in her best shape. Janice still managed to run and get a pretty good time but also sees room for improvement as her coach does.

“I can definitely improve by doing harder workouts and just pushing myself more through the race.” said Milian.

Janice, with her senior leadership, also tries to help her teammates out.

“I give them advice on what to eat and make sure that they’re staying hydrated throughout the week.  I also encourage them to go to sleep early, to keep a positive mindset throughout the race, and to give it their best,” said Milian, as the team prepares for a Saturday meet in Oatlands.  

Cross Country’s 2017 campaign already seems to be going as planned, and with great leadership and coaching, high hopes are expected to be met.