With the conclusion of the season, the Edgewood Cross Country (XC) team had an impressive run. The teams had a total of 8 meets and 26 new personal bests were reached this year.  At the Southwestern Ohio Conference (SWOC) Invitational, the girls placed 3rd in the conference, which was higher than last year. Unfortunately, the boy’s XC team did not place at the meet with Talawanda, Ross, Harrison, and Northwest ahead of them. 

Senior runner, Ashlynn Williams has run cross country since middle school. Last season, Ashlynn broke her school record several times, leaving the final record at 20:17. This season she had a personal record (PR) of 20:20.26, about 3 seconds off from her PR. Ashlynn is proud of her season despite not beating her own record. “Overall I placed 4th at SWOC. I didn’t run as fast as I had hoped. I was projected to place 3rd, but I still received 1st team all SWOC which I am still very proud of,” said Ashlynn. Ashlynn doesn’t plan on running in college, but instead attending the University of Cincinnati (UC) and coming back to coach for the 2023 XC and Track team.

For the boys cross country team, there are only two members: Senior, Stephen Bright and freshman Dennis West. The fact of only having two members on the boys team didn’t stop them from working hard every day at practice alongside the girls. Stephen finished the 2022 season with his personal best of 18:35.50 at the Firebird Invitational. Dennis finished his season with a P.R. of 20:33.07 during the Ross XC Invitational. 

Head Coach Michael Campbell is proud of both teams and hopeful for next season. “The boy’s numbers were down this year, but the guys on the team had good seasons. If we can get the numbers on the guys side up, both teams will have a solid foundation moving forward and will help to build up the cross-country program,” said Campbell. Coach Campbell hopes next season there is a full boys team so they can score higher at the meets.

Both Ashlynn and Stephen were awarded first-team all conference and junior Jessica Martinez earned second-team all-conference as well. And freshman, Kaylen Robb is already excited about next season. “I’m very proud of my season, I’m only a freshman and I have plenty of time to grow. All the conditioning we do during basketball season will help me stay in shape for track season and I can’t wait to have Ashlynn come back,” remarked Kaylen. 

Be sure to follow and support the EHS XC page on Instagram at “edgewoodxcfanpage”!