By John Raffel
SHEPHERD — Shepherd’s cross country team returned many top notch runners from a team that lost by 11 points to Ithaca in last season’s Division 3 title race, but it’s a set of newer faces that is leading the way for a very deep Bluejay team.
“The girls are working hard,” coach Cary Hammel said. “They had a great summer of training to get ready for the season. They’ve been improving throughout the season, which has been pretty cool. Every meet, we get a little better. They’ve made good progress.”
In mid October, Shepherd wrapped up its sixth straight Tri-Valley Conference Central championship.
“We were second at the Portage Invite,” Hammel said. “That’s one of the biggest invites of the season. To be second there is a good indication of where they’re at.”
Taylor Thrush and Abigail Moeggenburg, the No. 1 and 4 runners for Shepherd in the 2014 state meet, have graduated. Returnees from the top seven include senior Sarah Bellinger and juniors Rachel Mathers, Katie Powell, and twins Katelyn and Kylie Hutchinson.
Leading the way this season is freshman Amber Gall. “She’s one of the top freshmen in the state,” Hammel said. “She’s an awesome runner. She works super hard and does everything she can to be as fast she can.”
Gall’s season best as of mid October was 18:02. She was third at the Portage Invitational and was also conference champion.
Another freshman, Haley Hegenauer, is No. 2, with a best time of 19:31.
“She’s been a very pleasant surprise as a freshman and has done a great job all season,” Hammel said.
The Hutchinson sisters are No. 3 and 4. Kylie is at 19:41 for her season personal best. “She’s had a huge improvement from this time last year and is looking very strong and looking like she’ll have a good end of the season,” Hammel said. “Katelyn has just been steadily improving the whole season and is running fast at the perfect time. They’re both having great seasons.”
Bellinger is the No. 5 runner, with a best time of 20:53. “She’s so far run faster at this point of the season than she ever has before,” Hammel said. “I’m really encouraged with what that will mean the next couple of weeks for her.”
Rachel Mathers is No. 6 this season, although she was the No. 3 runner for the squad last year and 29th in the team scoring at the state finals. “She had her best race at Portage a couple of weeks ago, and she’s looking like she’ll continue to improve, too,” Hammel said.
“Katie Powell is our No. 7, and she had a great race at Portage, too.”
As for the freshmen taking the top two spots, “we knew they’d contribute, but it’s been kind of a surprise,” Hammel said. “It’s been fun at the same time. We have an excellent middle school program. Our middle school coach does an outstanding job with them. They’ve been working hard under him the last three years. We had an idea they were going to be special. Going forward, they’ll show how hard of workers they are. They’ll be names you’ll hear about the next three years.”