John Raffel
Sports Scene
Megan O’Neil has been forced to take on new challenges as a sophomore in her second season of varsity cross country at Chippewa Hills. A year ago, in a smashing freshman debut, O’Neil finished third at the state finals in 17:47.8.
Her best this season has been 18:21 prior to the regionals.
“I’ve had some growing issues,” she said. “I’ve been injured for part of the season and am getting back into it now.”
Coming up, O’Neil isn’t really sure of what goals to set.
“It’s been an interesting season,” she said. “I’d like to PR again.”
As the season heads into its final stages, the team has been doing some intense workouts, O’Neil indicated.
“We’ve got a really young team for girls,” she said. “We have mostly freshmen. We’re improving. We’ve got some really good freshmen.”
That includes Emily Starck, who was third in 19:03 at the Chippewa Hills Invitational on October 22. Chippewa Hills finished third. O’Neil was first in 18:39, in one of her best performances of the season.