At Kent, girls varsity cross country is one of the pillars of the community. It teaches discipline, focus, and perseverance: all traits needed to run for five kilometers without passing out.

When asked about how the team looks this year, Head Coach Mr. Baird, a member of the English department, says, “We’ve got pretty good numbers: there’s twenty five girls on the team, and we’ve got some good senior leadership with our co-captains Fifi Duncan ‘19 and Lara D’Alessandro ‘19. They’ve been doing a really good job.”

He hopes the season will only get better, and is hopeful about the new members of the team. “There are more freshmen than we’ve had in the past few years,” says coach Baird. In order to try to acclimate those who have never run before to the task, the team has been doing a lot of “base building, trying to get people comfortable with running more mileage and running some challenging courses.”

For Mr. Baird, coaching is “fun, especially at Kent.” He also enjoys seeing “new faces who are new to Kent, but also new to running.” He hopes to help them improve and become better runners. D’Alessandro, one of the captains, says that the season is “off to a good start.” She’s also excited for the races to come, where she hopes she and her teammates can improve even more on their times. All in all, both D’Alessandro and coach Baird can agree that the team is off to a good start of the season, and both are looking forward to more running ahead.