On Friday Sept 27,the boys and girls Francis Howell North cross country team headed to the Hazelwood West invitational at Koch Park. This 5K run had a flatter course and allowed the runners to show off their speed and endurance.

“It was a really good race overall for the whole team ,” Mike Butterfield, junior at FHN said. “We all had good PRs and it showed us how we could all do at districts.”

For some runners, this would be one of their most stressful meets considering that there are only seven varsity spots open with nine boys competing for it. The boys on the team have been working hard in order to get their spot on varsity.With most of the runners personal records being within an 10 to 15 second timespan on each other, the runners had to train and fight to be in the top seven at this race.

“I was looking forward to getting a really good PR at this race,” Butterfield said. “That was my main goal because time is the only thing that matters, not winning.”

With the season just starting, their has already been a huge improvement from last year. Many of the runners spent their summer training and working hard to improve for this season. With a couple new comers and the already hard working team, it seems that the FHN cross country team is going to be very competitive this year.

 “People should know that we are in it to win it this year,” Courtney Vishy, senior  at FHN said. “We are running and training harder than ever. There’s a passion to succeed like never before.”