The boys’ cross country team was ranked ninth in the state as of Oct. 3 and is looking to go far in the state series this year, following a disappointing end to last year’s sectional race. With a more experienced team than before, they ultimately hope to earn a trophy in the state competition for the first time in school history.

Brian Caldwell, the head coach for the boys’ cross country team, knows his runners want to prove themselves this year. The team will use its training during the season to advance past regionals after the conference meet this weekend.

“If we manage to make it through our sectional, which is going to be pretty challenging, on the lower end of the goal would be, be the best team in school history. I think on the top end of the goal would be top four teams get a trophy,” Caldwell said.

Two years ago, the cross country team lost five of their seven varsity runners after the best performance in school history. The team competed at sectionals the following year, but ultimately fell short of besting their 12th place state finish. Senior varsity runner Akhil Ghosh shared his thoughts on last season and how it affects the team’s mentality this year.

“That experience did make us want to go back there again, normally we would just want to make state, but this year we actually wanted to place really well in state… a lot of us just want to prove ourselves, DGS has not been a historically great team,” Ghosh said.

Caldwell knows that the team is already better than they were last year, but still realizes the pressure that comes from big meets.

“I think the guys will put a lot of pressure on themselves when we get to sectionals. Last year we hoped to make it to state and we fell just a little bit short as a team. I think we are going to feel that pressure whether we play it up or not. That we don’t want to be disappointed like we were a year ago,” Caldwell said.

After losing the top runners, the team was left with a rather inexperienced group. Ghosh and sophomore varsity runner, John Norris both pointed to this as a big part of why they did not perform as well as they would have liked to.

“Just no experience. We were so young, it [the team] was full of sophomores and juniors, no seniors,” Norris said.

The team knows that they will have to work hard and stay healthy in order to break a school record. Caldwell sees distance running as “a balancing act between working really, really hard, but not going too hard to the point where you get guys injured.”

With such a good team, it is hard to believe that two sophomores compete at the varsity level. Norris shared his thoughts about his position on the team.

“It feels great, there’s only two sophomores on varsity this year, on a team full of seniors,” Norris said.

The team looks to sweep the conference meet for the third year in a row this Saturday in Willowbrook.