“The bar continues to rise” for experienced and competitive Warren cross country teams.

“We are definitely coming off a great year last year for some individuals and the varsity girls team,” said Warren coach Kevin Dustin. “I know Sam Lindell is looking for a return to states and Cam Williams is looking to go with him. The girls team has been working hard together all summer and is looking to repeat qualifying a whole team through to the state meet again. The team expectations are to always grow and always try to improve. But, yes, now that they have achieved some good success, the bar continues to rise for them. It’s a very good position to be in.

“The seasons and the kids definitely build off each other,” added Dustin. “Each year, we talk about the goals for the season — what we think is realistic and what we think is the best-case scenario. Obviously, between other teams, injuries, courses, it can affect any outcome. But we set up what we are looking to achieve and we stay very goal-oriented. We try to do our best to handle what we can handle and let the rest take care of itself. The kids do a great job of reminding each other what they are working for and pushing everyone to achieve their best. It is great to see the leadership and closeness that develops with these groups.

“For our girls team, they return a lot of last year’s team that qualified for states,” said Dustin. “They have been in the position where they need to step up for a big race; they know what it takes now, and they have the expectation for themselves now. I know many of them feel the sense of team; they won’t drop out of workouts because they feel they have to do it for the team to get to their goal. It really is an awesome environment and they are very encouraging to everyone regardless of the level they are at currently. The girls’ expectations for themselves and self-accountability has definitely shown a change, a very good change. The boys team hasn’t seen success as a whole team quite yet, but we have a lot of new varsity runners that have seen success at the junior high level. They sense the urgency with some of the seniors about to graduate that this year has potential. There is a lot of leading by example on the boys team. Sam and Cam are both extremely talented and they just put in work like crazy. The younger guys see this and they see their success and see what it takes. We have an opportunity to have a pretty good year all-around; it’s just going to be whether we take advantage of it.”

The team rosters include: Varsity Boys — Jonah Brinkley, Grayson Collopy, Cole Fitzgerald, Gavin Heeter, Sam Lindell, Jack Monroe, Reilly Morgan, Emre Morgan, Parker Mowrey, Leyton Salvatore, Gabe Thibodeaux, and Cam Williams; Varsity Girls — Morgan Alexander, Cassidy Britton, Ella Cull, Adison Cullers, Riley Evan, Leona Hovan, Loralei Johnson, Emma Peterson, and Rose Rioux; Junior High Boys — Ashton Carrington, Mason Chapman, Daniel Cull, Ethan Gustafson, Nate Harris, Landon Lutton, Eli Lutton, Levi Peterson, Dylan Shaffer, and Mason Warner; and Junior High Girls — Delaney Moore, Scotlynn Perry, and Nina Woldt.

“On the boys side, Cam Williams, Sam Lindell, and Emre Morgan are our top returners and we are looking for a lot out of them up front for us,” said Dustin. “For the girls, Morgan Alexander, Cassidy Britton, Riley Evan, Leona Hovan, and Emma Peterson were all part of the state-qualifying team, and we are looking for the same kind of result out of them.

“We added a lot of youth on the boys side in Leyton Salvatore, Cole Fitzgerald, Reilly Morgan, who were very used to going 1-2-3 at the junior high level,” added Dustin. “We are looking for them to come out of the gate strong for the boys. Our girls team adds Adison Cullers, who has been running well so far with Ella Cull and Rose Rioux gaining ground quickly.

“We are looking to run strong against the region on both sides, but our main meets on the schedule we are focused on are districts and states,” he said. “Our end goal is to be at the state meet competing for state medals. We hope to take a full girls and boys team. If we cannot accomplish that, we hope to take as many individuals as possible. We have entered some more challenging invitationals this year with the hope that putting ourselves head to head with some hard competition often gives us a sense of what it takes to compete at a very high level. We have teams and individuals that can definitely compete and the more they do so in the hard situations, the better they are at handling them.”