On Friday, October 4th the Millard West Cross Country team hosted its own meet. The Millard West Invitational was held at Walnut Grove park. The varsity teams did very well throughout the meet and many runners set new personal records.

The varsity boys team had seven runners competing in the meet, each of them doing great. Sophomore Sam Kirchner finished second in the varsity race with a time of 16 minutes and 48.30 seconds. Kirchner was also the highest finisher on the Millard West team. Senior Anthony Miller came in fourth overall, second for the Wildcats, with a time of 17 minutes flat. Coming in third for Millard West, sixth overall, was freshman Joey Hartnett, with a time of 17 minutes and 11.62 seconds. Sophomore, Cole Haith finished seventh overall with a time of 17 minutes and 17.97 seconds. Finishing directly after Haith was sophomore Aidan MacLeod with a time of 17 minutes and 23.45 seconds. Coming in tenth overall was junior Austin Goetsche with a time of 17 minutes and 29.37 seconds. Rounding out the varsity field for Millard West, in twenty-seventh place overall was sophomore Seth Fey with a time of 18 minutes and 36.81 seconds. The varsity team took first place in the meet with a total of 22 points.

“I think the team did pretty good,” Kirchner said. “But if we were in a bigger meet we could be going a lot faster.”

The varsity girls team had eight runners competing, they also did very well as a team. Freshmen Isabelle Hartnett finished first overall with a time of 19 minutes and 48.30 seconds. Sophomore Sydney Beaudin finished fourth overall, second on the Millard West team with a time of 20 minutes and 20.57 seconds. Finishing right after Beaudin was junior Molly Bies with a time of 20 minutes and 39.20 seconds. Eighth overall was senior Katie McNulty with a time of 20 minutes and 46.37 seconds.  Sophomore Sammy Vojslavek was thirteenth overall with a time of 21 minutes and 10.92 seconds. Directly after Vojslavek was freshman Sammy Ullman. Finishing seventeenth overall was freshmen Callie Kirchner with a time of 21 minutes and 46.40 seconds. Rounding out the girls varsity field for Millard West, in twenty-fifth place overall was senior Alexa Koza with a time of 22 minutes and 39.58 seconds. The varsity girls team also came in first overall with a total of 22 points.

“Our team was able to compete very well despite it being a relatively small meet,” Bies said. “This meet was a great way to end the regular seasons and get us ready for the championship part of the season.”

The Millard West team had a great meet all around, and were proud to succeed in their home meet. The Wildcats won all but one of the races, which was a narrow loss. The Wildcats easily won the meet and this puts them in a great place for the state meet. The state meet is Friday, October 25th and the Wildcats will definitely make some noise.