Jackson XC season begins on home course

The cross-country season starts for most of the area on Saturday. For Jackson, it starts on their home course at 9 a.m.

"Personally for me, it's kind of like getting the chance to showcase an opener," Jackson senior Jack said, "showcase what we're going one last time on our home turf."

"I think our course is honestly one of the hardest that we have around here," Jackson senior Kya Pope said. "We've been practicing on the course and I'm really excited."

Despite injuries to Cole Puls and Cade McCadams last year, the Indians finished with the district title and fourth place in Class 5 on the boys' side while the girls finished 6th out of 24 in their district, and had two individual state qualifiers.

"The main accomplishment of the varsity team in 2022 was overcoming adversity," Jackson coach Andrea Talley said, "to never lose sight of the state aspirations, even when sickness or a freak sprain/injury occurred."

Bryce Gentry and Zach Brazel lead the boys' team as both seniors finished last year as All-Conference and state qualifiers.

"I'm just hungry to perform this season," Brazel said.

Gentry was the only all-state member for the Indians as he finished 17th with a time of 16:00.2. He is chasing the school record this fall and a chance to compete in college like McCadams before him.

"I didn't think starting my freshman year that I'd be varsity or be good at all," Gentry said. "I think after probably my sophomore year is when I started really thinking about running in college. Sophomore year is when I decided I wanted to do it because I really actually started seeing something come out of it and saw that I was running some faster times that can definitely get me into college."

Jack Hutson and Aidan Niedbalski are two candidates who could emerge from junior varsity this fall, as both were alternates for the state team.

"I really started taking cross-country, track, just running in general, a lot more seriously last winter," Hutson said. "I feel like this season is a big chance to show what I've worked for the last year."

The girls' team is led by three seniors; Grace Kurtz, Kya Pope, and Lydia Golinski.

"It's nice being a leader because you can encourage the girls and help them get better," Kurtz said. "You can understand what they're going through and how to help freshmen because I was there when I was younger."

The best-returning runner on the girls' team last year was Emma Niedbalski, who finished her freshman year in the state meet and was a Semoball Awards finalist.

One side has youth, the other has depth, all of which is exciting to Talley.

"I think that this will be an exciting year, even with so many unknowns at this point," Talley said. "I cannot predict who will be at each level right now. With such a young team there is just so much more teaching and reminding, but by the end of the season, these teams will surprise people."