With such a strong season, the Milford Girls Cross Country  team runners had their heads held high after finishing 20th out of 28 teams at the Michigan Cross Country State Finals at Michigan International Speedway on November 2nd. This race marks the 10th straight year that the Milford girls had qualified to run at the State Finals.

The speedway is normally used for Nascar Monster Energy series races, where racers reach speeds up to 206 mph, although the girls wouldn’t be running at speeds that fast; they ran as fast and as hard as they could to just go out and lay it all out on the line for themselves and the amazing community which has supported them up to this point. Senior Runner Sophia Hustzi described what it’s like to run here: “It’s such a cool experience, it’s really fitting that all the XC teams get to run where cars race. The vast amount of people filled the stadium and their cheers make for a really cool atmosphere. But the coolest thing to me is the tradition of the state meet and how many previous or fellow teammates have had the same experience of racing in that stadium.”

At the State Finals, Milford competed against 27 other teams and 250 other athletes. After ending the regular season with a record of 8-0 and winning the Lakes Valley Conference meet, the girls had confidence heading into the MHSAA regional race.

After finishing third at the regional race, they weren’t going into States with the mindset that they were going to win, but rather the mindset that they can compete by just running their hardest, and most importantly, running together. They were also going into States without their number one returning runner from last year, but fortunately the team carried on her impact throughout the whole season.

When asked, Sal described what he thought the team’s mindset was after finishing third, he said, “Their mindset never changed, they were trying to be as good as the could be by growing each and every week as a team.”

Although the girls couldn’t pull off winning States this year, they have a promising future. Freshman Grace Harkenrider, the team’s top performer at States, finished 90th. Although that doesn’t seem remarkable, it is especially impressive for her first year of high school; half of the whole field and she ran a time under twenty minutes as a freshman, which is an outstanding accomplishment and something to watch for the next three years.

At the end of the day, the team knew that a higher finish wasn’t likely this year.

Expecting a young team to walk in and win the State Finals would be unrealistic, but the lessons and things they can take away will make them better as individuals and as a group. Although it may be slightly disappointing to lose, the future for this young group of runners is promising, and if anyone were to ask them, they would all say that they have big plans to come.