The Jesuit Women’s Cross Country team is returning this year to the national rankings as Milesplits 20th best team in the U.S. This isn’t a surprise to a team who has consistently performed at the national level, making nationals a stunning 11 times in the last 20 years. However, after losing five seniors who played a major role in their 2023 season, the team has critical decisions to make in order to meet the expectations the previous seniors set up for them, and continue their recent dominance in the state of Oregon, winning the last two state championships.
“We have a pretty young team this year,” junior Mimi Thompson said. “So there’s a lot of new girls advancing to our top seven.”
A key part of achieving success within the team’s top seven girls is strongly influenced by connection between each runner, so incorporating these younger runners into the fabric of the team will be crucial to Jesuit’s accomplishment . The women’s team mentioned they constantly do various activities together that include their daily workouts, pre-meet routines, and their meet day rituals.
“I would say we become pretty reliant and depend on one another to make it through hard efforts,” Thompson said. “We kind of know who we can work with and who we can’t.”
Looking into the upcoming season, Jesuit’s biggest competitor is currently the Lincoln Cardinals, as the Cardinals previously had beat them in Nike Cross Regionals (NXR). The Cardinals and Crusaders consistently dueled last season, with Jesuit pulling out a crucial state meet win, while Lincoln won the battle at NXR to qualify for the national meet.
“Last year we kind of had a rough start with Lincoln,” sophomore Ellie Welsh said. “But we grew from it and we did our workouts kind of based on that and that kept us motivated.”
“I feel like we run smart as a team, and with a slightly younger top seven we all still have a lot more to tackle” Thompson said, “we have that kind of ambition with our younger age”.
The Jesuit women will face Lincoln for the first time this season at the Mook on September 21st. Jesuit will also face key tests against some of the top teams in the region at Nike Twilight and Nike Hole In the Wall.
After the loss of experience the team faced from losing five seniors, all who are now running at the next level, the team ultimately became a much younger based group this year with many underclassmen runners making up the top seven. Currently, the varsity this year has two seniors who are returning runners from last year’s state meet. The team mentioned that because of the variety of grades present on the women’s team, having multiple older returning runners as role models and leaders is certainly helpful for the younger teammates to look up to them and learn from them.
“Yeah, I think it’s really helpful that we have a lot of seniors on our team as well, because they have the most experience out of everyone,” sophomore Maeve O’Scannlain said.
In addition to Lincoln, another big competitor for the Crusaders this year is district rivals the Sunset Apollos. Following the previous 2023 season, Sunset came in 3rd place in the State Meet and 2nd in Metro League to the Crusaders. This year, the Apollos are seeking revenge once again and looking to be a tough competitor for Jesuit.
“I think Sunset being in our district and placing in state makes us motivated,” Welsh said.
