Both girls and boys cross country teams will compete in the Canyon Invitational Saturday, Oct. 5 at Canyon High School. 

The cross country teams have both competed in non-district meets throughout their seasons. The boys team ran in the Decatur meet Saturday, Sept. 14.

“Decatur is the team that won state last year,” senior Collin Treadwell said. “For this meet we got second behind them. Our coach was really excited because on mile split they were ranked second, and we were ranked fifth. Us being that close is really good motivation for us because we know that we’re actually there, and we can compete for the podium at state this year.”

Last year, the boys cross country team fell short of a podium spot with a fifth place overall finish at the state meet. 

“It’s still really possible at this point in time,” Treadwell said. “We still have bigger races. Right now we’re really learning to race faster. Then we can do it.”

The girls cross country team earned the state championship last year. 

“Our main goal is being state champions again,” junior Gabi Davis said. “Hopefully more individuals start showing up and showing out to make that top 10 individual ranking at state.”

Davis said one of the team strengths this year lies in the freshmen runners.

“It’s always great,” Davis said. “They help push up the upperclassmen that want to stay up there. So that’s a big thing. But the leaders and seniors are doing a great job at just helping out the freshmen and keeping it positive.”

Davis said the invitational meet on Saturday is very important.

“Most of us are running on varsity because we are kind of racing for our positions for district,” Davis said. “This is our last meet before district so we’ll need to have a solid seven to move on. So in a way, we are racing for those positions this weekend.”

Junior Samuel Ashley said the 3 mile course at the meet is usually fast.

“It will definitely have a lot of really fast times,” Ashley said. “I think we’re really looking to beat some old records then. For me, I want to break 15 which is going to be my first but I’m pretty excited. I want to do that.”

Last year at the state meet Ashley placed third overall in the boys race.

“I think now we have the mindset that we could maybe get podium this year, it’s really brought us closer together knowing that we can get there,” Ashley said. “We’re improving our times, we’ve done hard workouts, and I’ve seen a lot of improvement. I think it’s looking really good this year.”