It was necessary for the Minooka girls cross country team to have a great performance out of their top seven runners at Channahon Community Park on Sept. 17. Those girls stepped up to the challenge and came out winning first place at the Minooka Flight Invitational with 18 points 

Those seven runners included Ella McCollom, Gabby Kics, Maya Ledesma, Liana Blount, Taya Gummerson, Cassie Brushaber, and Kylie Meyers. Since it was a flight meet each of the girls needed to step up. 

There were two obstacles the girls had to get around. The first obstacle was that the meet was “flight style,” and it was their first time running that style of meet this year. The other was that it was Homecoming Week and the meet was on the day of Homecoming. 

“Normally we practice on Friday, but with the parade and all that we gave them the day off, but they all went out for a run at 3:15,” said head coach, Kevin Gummerson.

The girls didn’t let Homecoming distract them from their meet and went out of their way to get a run in before the meet.

“We made sure to work on team bonding this week because we knew that we wouldn’t be running together,” said sophomore Taya Gummerson, who won flight 5. 

“There were nights they were probably out later than the should’ve been, but they still were ready to go,” said coach Gummerson.

The other Minooka runner to win her flight was sophomore Cassie Brushaber, who won flight 6. 

“The coaches tell me how to run my race, and I listen to them to be successful,” said Brushaber.

The girls ended up with 18 points in the meet, and probably had their best performance so far.