Makenna Laufey, junior, fought her way through the race, passing people to continue moving forward. She finished first on the Mount Vernon team, a strong end to the 2025-2026 cross country season.
Even with the stress from pre-race nerves, the Lady Marauder cross country runners shook it out by having some fun before the race.From left to right, Kendall Cagnet, junior, Kristyn Filsaime, junior, Anabelle Vedas, freshman, Keeton Cagnet, freshman and Galyn Moore, junior, smile for the camera before heading to the start line.Hannah Hauser, senior, ended her senior cross country season strong, finishing close behind Lauffey. She has run all four years of cross country in high school and beat the girls school 5k record in a previous season.This course is near the Marion County fairgrounds. This course is called the Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana. The trail near the course features fun-styled bear statues and a small bridge.After pre-race stretching and warming up, the Lady Marauders gathered together to encourage each other and do the routine team prayer. These runners had a strong season together and look forward to track season and next year’s cross country season.Moore fought for a spot up while Chesnie Willis, junior, followed closely behind in an effort to catch her teammate. Both fought hard not only during this race but overall this season.Lily Quinn, senior, passed the first kilometer marking of the five kilometer race, pushing to stay with the Newport girl. This is also Lily’s last race of her career. Similar to Hauser, Quinn also ran cross country all four years of high school and while she does not plan to run in college, she had a strong season.Deon’cia Dillard, freshman, and Willis worked together to reduce points for the team as they continued to pass runners. Dillard had a strong first year, making top ten on the team in her first year running high school cross country. Willis also had a strong season, after being injured for a time she made a strong comeback during this season’s last race.
