Last year the ACGC girls cross country team finished just two points shy of qualifying for their second state meet in their first two years. Head Coach Colin Shawgo believes they’ll avenge those two points and make a return to state in October.

The center piece for the team is arguably Kate Crawford. The former state individual champion, Crawford enters her junior year already with two top three finishes at the State Meet. Shawgo believes senior Lauryn Embleton can also crack the top 15.

“She had a very very good summer. She was exercising all summer long, doing a lot of cross training. She has a fire under her this year. She realizes that this is going to be her last year to do cross country at the high school level and she really wants to go out there and not only perform very very well for herself but also help the team as much as she can. I know one of her goals is to be an All-State runner at the State Meet. I do believe that she has the talent and the work ethic to do so. I think it’s going to be a really great season for her.”

Both the girls and the boys open the season on August 23rd at the Iowa State Cross Country Course in Ames. Athletes from several schools will be competing at that meet, including Greene County and Panorama. To hear more from Shawgo on the upcoming cross country season, listen to him on tonight’s Guthrie County PM Sports page beginning at 6pm on True Country K 107.9.