The Shaler Area Cross Country team has completed another season. Though the athletes are sad to see the season end, there are many achievements to be recognized as a result of the hard work and dedication of the athletes.

The team had normal sectional meets throughout the fall and also ran some competitive invitationals as well. Some of the most notable ones were the Red, White, and Blue Foundations Meet in September, the Grove City Cross Country Invitational and WPIALs.

“We have a small team, but we were competitive in each race,” coach Justin Eskra said. “The team had an extremely close bond with one another which allowed for everyone to practice and train at a high intensity.”

Though the athletes endured hard races, many of them achieved new course personal records that they were extremely proud of and still had a lot of fun memories.

“My favorite memory from this year was getting a personal record at the White Oak course (Red White and Blue race) and going on a haunted hayride with the team,” senior Samantha Hennen said.

Three of the seniors also qualified for states, which was exciting for some of the athletes, because they had never gone before.

“The season was great. It started off slow with injuries, but I adjusted and found a groove. Ryan, Sam, and I all made it to the states this year and I couldn’t be more proud,” senior Tyler Paszkowski said.

The seniors will miss the memories they created with their cross country family.

“I am going to miss high school cross country in general,” senior Ryan Paris said. “After spending four years with coach Eskra and running with Sam and Tyler since middle school it will be hard to leave them. From this year specifically, I am going to miss all of our fun team memories, like taking timer pictures every day or going to a haunted corn maze with the team. We have definitely had some good memories this year and this is the closest the team has ever been with each other.”

Sam, Tyler, and Ryan want to further their running careers in college and compete at the next level.

“I definitely want to continue running moving forward and take it to the next level. I’ve talked to plenty of college coaches and I’m very excited for what the future has,” Paszkowski  said.

The head coach will miss the athletes he has been training ever since they were just incoming freshmen.

“The seniors were the heart and soul of the team this year,” coach Justin Eskra said. “They organized activities all season long for everyone to join. Their hard work and self-motivation allowed all three of them to compete at the PIAA meet in Hershey.”