The conditions were just right for a solid performance at Regionals today at Allendale! After a week of tapering, the team had fresh legs to give it their all today! Congrats to Maggie Duba on a state qualifying place and time! She ran a solid race of a 19:10 and was 4th place in the region! She had that goal time in her sights all week and through her mental strength, effort, and ability to run with the top girls, was able to hit that today to qualify!  Leaving nothing in the tank, Lily LeSarge (20:39), Nathalie Strockis (21:03) and Lainey Roth (21:38) all hit PR's as well, being just as driven and focused to hit their goal times today! Abby Druelle (20:49), Claire Smith (22:27), and Julia Sanford (23:41) all pushed themselves to run hard, well fought races until the end! The fact this team is one of the smallest teams in Division 2 and the girls took 4th place is something to be celebrated! They were only 6 points off of qualifying for state as a team, and definitely have their sights on that next year, as the top 6 will all be returning!. It shows this team has a lot of potential and much to be excited for in the future! These girls have had a lot success this year, and it has been really cool to see how they work together as a team in practice and these meets where it counts the most to bring each other up! Even though their official season is over they'll have one more fun meet in Indiana for the XC Town Meet of Champions Race! In the meantime, they'll be cheering on Maggie this Friday for her big race at State! Excellent Job today Falcons!

There was a lot of pressure for the varsity girls to perform for their pre-regional meet in Allendale Friday! They were adamant that Friday would not be their last race, so it would require them to move up in the race to score points. In a tight race with Holland Christian, the girls got 4th place by a 21 point margain to go on to the regionals next week! Racing is not only about pace and effort, it is about sticking with other runners who will affect the race scoring. The girls did a good job of moving up together and sticking with groups in the race! Maggie Duba ran a 19:23 and was 7th in the region! It is not easy to earn a personal record after already running a school record time the previous race! Even in the cold and rainy race conditions, Maggie had a lot of confidence and mental strength to stay in the top of the race, which is why she keeps running these impressive times! Abby Druelle took second on varsity with her best time this year of a 20:33! Abby has grown a lot into the sport and towards the end of the season has made significant improvements when it has counted! Lily LeSarge also had a PR day of 20:46! Lily is another freshman who has run their best times at the end and has grown well into the sport! Nathalie Strockis ran a 21:17 and Lainey Roth ran a 21:53 which are their season records! Their attitudes and work ethic help them hit their goals in the race and help their teammates to not settle in during the race! Claire Smith and Maggie McKeiver rounded out the varsity with hard fought races, passing opponents that made it vital for moving on to next week! The coaches are proud of this team's commitment and ability to perform when asked to do so! That all being said, this is an important week of practices of staying healthy to have a good race at Regionals! For the JV girls, Saturday took them to the Last Chance Meet in Hudsonville. Racing PR's were Heidi Schulten, who took almost a minute off her previous season best!, and Julia Sanford, who overcame recent health issues to not only best this season's time by over a minute and a half, but ended her Senior year with the PR she's been chasing all year, from 24:28 last year to 23:21 yesterday! Good racing this weekend, girls, and good luck at Regionals!

What a race for the Falcons Tuesday at Spring Lake for their final conference meet of the season! It was a record setting day for Maggie Duba. She not only earned an All- Conference Award, she ran a PR of19:25, 1.5 seconds out of first place, and the fourth best time ever run for a West Catholic varsity girl! Earning All-Conference Awards as well was Freshman Lily LeSarge, and Honorable Mentions honors included Nathalie Strockis and Abby Druelle!  The girls as a team had one of their best performances of the season, with 11 PR's and 2 SR's! At this point in the season, their goal is to run their fastest times and not peak too early, which is exactly how they performed! For the JV girls, they have been driven and shown a lot of heart this season, especially the seniors who tried to leave it on the course! There is a PROM race on Saturday, for the JV team to finish on a strong note,and hopefully earn one last PR! For the varsity girls, the goal is to get to the Regional meet as a team, and continue off the momentum built Tuesday! They are up for the challenge,and there is all the faith that they can do it! 

The perfect fall day led the girls cross country team up 1.5 miles of steep, sandy Jeeping trails before coming out strong to finish on Golden Sands golf course, taking second place at the Pentwater Falcon Invitational Saturday. Leading the pack and taking home medals were Maggie Duba - 6th place, Lily LeSarge - 7th, Nathalie Strockis - 12th, and Abby Druelle - 14th! Rounding out the scoring was Claire Smith in 21st, followed closely by Lainey Roth in 22nd, and Maggie McKeiver in 24th!  In the JV Race, after seeing the boys and varsity girls finish such a difficult course, the girls dug in and still gave it their best, knowing it was good race day training for their next and final conference meet on October 20. Stay strong and focused, Lady Falcon Harriers!

The girls really showed up for the second conference race at Allendale on Tuesday! Congrats to every JV racer for hitting their personal records! It usually doesn't happen where the team as a collective hits their best time in the same race so that was exciting to see! The varsity girls team also took 3rd in the race! Maggie Duba took 4th place overall and is continuing to run hard races to keep up with the fastest in the conference!  Varsity girls Lily LeSarge, Abby Druelle, Claire Smith, and Anna Richmond had personal record days! With captains Aishlin Roth and Julia Sanford out with injuries, seniors Eve Bacon, Hailey Siwek, and Abby Nawrocki stepped up to the plate by surpassing their goal times and leading the team by example! Going to be a test for the team on Saturday with a harder, unfamiliar course at Pentwater! If the team continues to work like they have, though, we're going to have a lot of success in the conference ranks and hopefully can bring the whole team to the regional race! Stay strong and focused, girls!

There were a lot of high hopes going into to the girls race Saturday morning at Fruitport after the boys had a good showing! The girls team scored 31 points as a team taking home the first place plaque! Maggie Duba continued her trend of winning races taking first place with a time of 20:57! Lily LeSarge and Nathalie Strockis both had a photo finish Lily getting 3rd and Nathalie 4th, .19 seconds apart! It was Lily's best time, and Nathalie's fastest this year!  Abby Druelle also cracked the top ten taking 8th place and a PR of a 22:15! Claire Smith had an impressive PR with a 23:24! Lainey Roth, who has been sick all week, still showed up to run, beating her goal time with her SR of 23:32! Maggie McKeiver also beat her goal, racing a season record of a 23:42! Anna Richmond had a determination the whole race running a 24:12, best time she has run! Bree Hoffer, who battled a sprained ankle from the beginning of the season, has started to find her stride getting a SR of a 25:20! Brenna Olewinski,  Lauren Ignatoski, and Cassandra Sisk all raced their best time as well! Heidi Schulten ran a hard race, pacing with Cassandra, for a 28:25, bringing the entire girls team in well under 29 minutes!!! It's always awesome to see that many improvements in time! What's just as good was the small spread between our varsity runners! The girls did a good job today of closing gaps and running as a team! Excellent race today West! We are going for a repeat of fastest times Tuesday in the second Conference Jamboree at Allendale!

The JV and Varsity girls cross country teams competed in two different varsity divisions for the Cougar Falcon Invitational. Gainey Field, having an open course, made the late race in the heat of the day that much tougher! West Catholic still fought through it and took 3rd place for the girls in the Falcon Division! Congrats to Maggie Duba for taking 10th place and earning a top place medal! While the heat and hills caused some slower times than they have recently run, every veteran runner who completed the race was able to run 1/2 - 1+ minute quicker than last year on this course, reinforcing their commitment to improvement this season! The only exception was Nathalie Strockis, who ran the EXACT SAME TIME - down to a chip timed tenth of a second - as 2019! That has to be some record somewhere!!! Julia Sanford had a good fought race, hitting her goal time and season record! The team is looking forward to a full week of practices and training after a hard fought couple of meets! Their next meet is back in Fruitport for the Fruitport Invitational on October 3rd!

West Catholic Cross Country competed at Fruitport for their first race against their conference opponents Wednesday. With the changed conference this year, it was going to be intriguing to see how the team stacked up against the newer teams! It was a pretty good day for the girls, varsity took 3rd place out of the 8 teams! Not all the goal times were hit but there was still a lot of positives to take away! Maggie Duba took 3rd place with a time of 20:51! Lily LeSarge took 11th place, passing a Spring Lake runner at the end! Nathalie Strockis finished 18th and Abby Druelle finished right with her at 19th. The girls made good strides in the conference and the goal is getting some all conference honors and mentions!  On the JV side, Hailey Siwek got a personal record with a 27:53 and Heidi Schulten PR'd with a 28:19! The next meet is this Saturday, the Cougar Falcon Invite and definitely a quick turnaround to improve and build off this race! The team has put in the work, its just going to be about controlling the mental game! The coaches know they all have it in them to do great things because they have shown they're potential time and time again! Let's keep it moving girls!

Under perfect conditions, the West Catholic Girls Cross Country won their duel meet against Grand Rapids Track Club on their home turf at Riverside Park. The girls had a big group competing which paved the way for fast times today. Maggie Duba got second place and ran her best time ever with a 19:45! Lily Lesarge had herself a day running 37 seconds faster than her best time with a 21:56 and 3rd overall! Nathalie Strockis took an impressive 51 seconds off her time this year with a time of 22:01 and 4th overall! Abby Druelle, 5th, ran her personal record with a 22:23 having Nathalie on her sights the whole race! Lainey Roth,finished 8th, keeping the winning score at 22 points! She had her season's best with a 23:41, more than a minute faster than her last race! Maggie McKeiver was right with her until the end running her season's best 23:54!  Abby Nawrocki had a fast day running a 25:34 more than 2 minutes faster than her season record! Anna Richmond also had a good time of a 25:49 with a strong finish! Bree Hoffer ran her first race of the season after coming off injury and had a good debut running a 26:28! Lauren Ignatoski had a good showing running a 26:43 her fastest race yet! Hailey Siwek and Brenna Olewinski had a lot of grit and determination to push each other in the race only a second difference between each of them! Hailey ran a 27:56 while Brenna ran a 27:57! Eve Bacon had  a good pace and finish as she ran a 28:35 never settling down in the race! Cassandra Sisk took more than a minute off her personal record with a 29:12! Heidi Schulten ran her first race after joining the team only a week earlier, running a 29:17, and never let Cassandra get too far ahead of her! It was an impressive showing with that many personal records in one race! Hopefully, that momentum is carried over to the next conference race at Fruitport as the team gets into the thick of the season! Good day girls!

West Catholic cross country competed at the Kenowa Hills 5 way against Northview, Comstock Park, Kenowa Hills, and Sparta today. The girls had runners compete in both JV and varsity. With the wind being a significant factor today, it made it tougher to run with the openness of the course, but it wasn't something the team was going to back down from! The first race was the varsity race where the top three freshman girls last week moved up into the 5k today! Maggie Duba took 4th place running a 21:12 having a strong finish passing two girls at the end! Lily LeSarge had a good start to her varsity debut running a 22:33 and taking 9th place! Abby Druelle also had a strong effort the entire race running a 22:54, always having her teammates in her sight! Nathalie Strockis did the same, staying right on Abby's heels running a 22:56! Claire Smith had a strong finish,passing multiple people running a time of 24:10! Lainey Roth and Maggie McKeiver continue to be good running partners constantly bringing each other up in the race! Lainey ran a 25:32 and Maggie with a 25:26! Captains Julia Sanford and Aishlin Roth also ran hard during their first 5k of the season. Julia ran a 26:24 while Aishlin ran a 27:58 coming off sickness in the days prior! It was a good showing for the varsity side! For the JV race, there were six girls who competed in the race. They did well in this race running in packs, which helped them not settle in, but continue to push forward.  Abby Nawrocki ran a 27:58 with Eve Bacon about 9 seconds off her running a 28:07! Anna Richmond kept up with Eve and Abby in her 5k debut, to run hard all the way to a 28:28! Hailey Siwek, Brenna Olewinski, and Cassandra Sisk all ran as a pack following the first group of girls having good form, strides and effort throughout in their first ever 5k race! A common theme of this meet was having good splits and strong finishes to beat people at the end! A big focus at practice this week will be pace so each mile and not just the first two can consistently get faster! This will carry the team into their next meet against Grand Rapids Track Club!

The West Catholic Girls Cross Country Team brought home the hardware at the annual Michigan Catholic Invitational in Dewitt Saturday! A strong showing from the boys side, inspired the girls to do the same and they did just that! Seven of the girls ran in the 2 mile race. The top three medals all went to West Catholic athletes! Lily LeSarge, in her first ever high school race, ran a 14:03 and took 1st place, becoming the fourth consecutive West Catholic girl to Gold medal in that race! Abby Druelle impressed, follwing LeSarge in 2nd place running a 14:49, while Claire Smith took home the third place medal running a 15:22 on an injured foot! Anna Richmond took 7th place running a 16:55 while Brenna Olewnski took 10th place running a 17:39, both earning a top ten medal! Cassandra Sisk ran an 18:47 taking off more than a minute and a half from her previous race! Lauren Ignatoski came up right behind her running an 18:49! Then came the 10 team varsity St. Sebastian 5k, where Maggie Duba had herself a day running a 20:37 and taking 1st place in the race! Nathalie Strockis earned 10th place and ran a 22:52 on her birthday! Lainey Roth ran a 24:55 with Maggie Mckeiver pushing her to the end again running a 25:23! Eve Bacon finished off the varsity side running a 30:14! She had the determination to finish the race, even though she injured her leg mid-race! It was a good day with lots of hardware to inspire the girls into the next meet, and for the newer girls who are really getting a feel for the sport! Impressive effort today girls!

First Race in the Books!           The West Catholic cross country team competed in their first race of the 2020 season with a 2 mile race at Belding. The girls team had 16 runners compete in the race today. Maggie Duba, coming off her state qualifying season last year, ran a 13:05 and took second in the whole meet, just behind the course record holder! Freshman Abby Druele was on her tail taking 4th place and running with a time of 13:50! Nathalie Strockis ran in the top ten finishing with a time of 14:14! Freshman Claire Smith finished with a time of 15:13 as she sprinted until the very end! Sophomores Maggie McKeiver and Lainey Roth were pushing each other the whole race as Maggie ran a 15:16 and Laney ran a 15:23! Captains, Julia Sanford and Aishlin Roth were both neck and neck, Julia running a time of 16:05 and Aishlin with a time of 16:15, both crushing last year's time on the course! Junior Anna Richmond and sophomore Isabella Schaub both had strong finishes! Anna ran a time of 16:45 with Isabella right behind her with a time of 16:53! With cheer being in the same boat as football (cancelled), Hailey Siwek joined the team a day before the first meet! She impressed with a time of 17:15! Senior Abby Nawrocki had a good showing as well with a time of 17:16! Senior Eve Bacon had a personal best at this race as well with a time 17:53! Freshmen Brenna Olewinski and sophomore Lauren Ignatoski helped push each other right to the finish. Brenna finished with a 18:15 while Lauren ran a 18:24, and Freshman Cassandra Sisk crosse dthe finish line with a time of 20:21! It was a good first showing for the team especially for some of the new runners where this was their first distance race ever! This team has a lot of depth which will help them push each other to meet their goals and help score well at the bigger meets down the line! Going to be an exciting season! Good job girls!