2020 fall sports like football and volleyball have been moved to the spring because of the current coronavirus pandemic. Galena High School decided to offer students the opportunity to try a new sport this fall and created a cross country team. Cross country is a coed sport and 10 students joined the team. 

“I’m happy that I decided to join the cross country team because I improved on my cardio and I had a fun time with the team,” said Samantha Callahan ‘23. 

On October 24 the team travelled to Oregon, Illinois to participate in the IHSA regional competition. The girls team placed tenth and the boys team placed seventh. Three individuals from the team qualified for the IHSA sectional, to be held on October 31. Sam Eaton said, “It was really exciting seeing all of our work pay off after such a hard season”. Running with Eaton are Callahan and senior Sam Hesselbacher. “I just want to run my race next week,” said Hesselbacher. “I want to show off what I got, and if I win great.”

On Tuesday, when they should have been preparing for the sectional race, the trio found out that one of their teammates had tested positive for COVID 19. This means that the rest of the team had to immediately quarantine and were unable to race in the sectional. Eaton ‘23 said, “We were all really disappointed that we didn’t get to run but unfortunately that’s just the way it’s been going with COVID.” 

Even though their season was cut short, the cross country experiment could definitely be considered a success. Runners improved their times at almost every meet, and had the chance to try something they might not have otherwise. Congratulations to the cross country team for a great season.