Cross Country is one of Elder’s fall sports teams.  Recently, it has been of one of the more successful teams at Elder.  The cross country team has consistently made it to The Ohio Regional Meet since 2016.  Some Elder teams have not seen this successes lately, yet the Cross Country teams hasn’t had much popularity.

The Cross Country team lost some key runners last year that were in the top five such as Eddie Cummings and Nick Merk who both were number one runners for Elder at one time or another.  This season seemed like an uphill battle from the very beginning.  However, Elder had some juniors step up in a big way.

Jarod Timmers Elder’s unrivaled best runner had another amazing season where he was nominated for Athlete of the Week multiple times throughout the season.  Elder’s other top seven runners include Cooper Mullen, Ben Wimmers, Mark Schweinberg, Conner Magness, Kevin Schenkel, and Michael Schenkel.  All of these runners besides three were juniors and Cooper Mullen just joined this year.  The future seemed bleak for Elder Cross Country, but it seems like its in great hands.

The main story line of this season was the departure of longtime head coach Steve Spencer.  After his final meet as a the Cross Country coach, Spencer said he was very proud of his runners this season.  Spencer retired after coaching his teams to multiple state titles and GCL championships.  Click here to find the results of the season on Eshports.com

Elder’s season consisted of multiple wins and top three places, a spot in the regional meet, and second place in the GCL.  The team wanted to make it to state but came up just short.  Captains Jarod Timmers and Michael Schenkel expressed their emotions at the end of the regional meet as they thanked the team for coming out to support them.  Elder’s support at the regional meet was outstanding.  We were the definitely the biggest crowd of people at meets supporting the Purple Pack.

The result of the season is not what anyone wanted but that did not take away from their improbable season.  The season was filled with it’s ups and downs.  Schenkel got hurt half way through the season which could have ruined it but the team stepped up.  Cross Country is a tough sport and requires a lot of mental toughness and this team showed it when it needed it.