By SARAH RUIZ, staff reporter

The Central cross-country team is ready to win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference this year. Placing fifth in the GNAC last year, the team hopes to improve this upcoming season and make it even further.

Last year, the women’s team finished 10th in the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships, while the men’s team placed 18th. This was the best finish for the women’s team since 2007.

The team’s high rank in the GNAC last year was partly credited to then-senior Kelsey Kreft, who finished eighth individually. This upcoming season, the team will be looking for Dani Eggleston and Connie Morgan to step into the limelight and help bring the team to victory.

As a freshman last year, Eggleston ran right behind top runner Kreft. Both Eggleston and Morgan were in the team’s top three runners for the women’s team.

“Eggleston had an outstanding freshman season,” Adkisson said. “She learned from Kelsey – she should be ready to pick that up.”

When the fall season comes around, the team is preparing to work hard to reach their goals. When practice starts in August, the women’s team iwill focus on maintaining strong runners. The men will work on building off their old and new runners to create a team Adkisson hopes to continue to grow during the years to come.

“A lot of cross-country people do track. Now they need to take the fitness level they built this year and build off it,” Adkisson said.

The season start will be the first weekend of September at Central. Adkisson said that the recruiting this year is the   best he has seen as a coach. Adkission is excited to see freshman Tomislav Smith from Kamiak High School perform, as well as Hannah Dowdell from Cascade High School. Dowell is the younger sister of Wildcat runner Chelsea Dowdell.

“They should make good training partners [during the summer],” Adkisson said.

With many talented athletes, Adkisson believes this will be a year where the team pushes each other to do their best.

“Keeping their spot on the team,” Adkission said. “It might be something they are really afraid of.”