By Sara Laurie, Reporter

With a second-place regionals finish, the girls’ cross country team competed at the Class 2A Belvidere Sectional on Oct. 30.

The team, which also placed fourth in conference. Despite several injuries this season that sidelined sophomore Abby Dodis, who suffered a stress fracture in her lower leg, sophomore Maggie Brundige, who broke her foot, and senior Sydney Strang, who was out with an illness, the team went undefeated in dual meets and won the Oregon Invitational.

“We definitely needed the girls. It took a lot out of the team when they were out, but we pushed through and made it work,” senior captain Andie Strang said.

Coach Doug Ecker praised the team for its dedication.

“We beat everyone we could beat,” Ecker said. “We have an extremely strong conference and the runners who beat us were just better runners, plain and simple.”

Ecker said Strang was the team’s most talented runner, junior Jenn Howland had qualified for state as an individual runner, and senior Kaitlin Munyon and senior Shaela Collins had shown the most improvement in their times this year.