The Lakeland Hawks cross-country team finished their 2023 season over the weekend at the state competition in Boise.
The two runners that advanced to state were freshmen Parker Sterling and Maddie Chapple.
Sterling’s time was 17:15, and finished 36th, becoming the first freshman at the 4A level to finish the race, and it was a huge accomplishment. Sterling has been running cross country for many years, and co-head coach Shannon Mattila is excited about his future.
“Parker has been running XC for many years, and we were so excited when he joined the team this season because we knew he was a strong runner,” Mattila said.
“The season was pretty good, made it to districts, broke a couple of PRs,” Sterling said.
Chapple also finished her race in 36th place, with her time being 20:32, which also set a new personal record. She was the fourth freshman to finish at the 4A level. She was also able to shed four minutes from her times since the start of the season. This is Chapple’s first year running cross country, and Mattila had high praise.
“We are so excited to watch her continue to get faster for the next three years. This is Maddie’s first year running cross country, and she has shaved off over four minutes on her race time over the course of the season,” Mattila said.
Both runners are freshmen and are looking forward to next season, and we can hold it, along with Mattila.
“I’m really excited to take that top record spot from our school,” Sterling said.
“We are looking forward to next season and home to bring teams to join these two,” Mattila said.
All of the Hawk runners saw massive improvements over the course of the season and are already gearing up for next year and are looking to capture gold at the district and state tournaments.”