The cross country season kicked off on Tuesday as part of a tiered beginning to the 2020 EPC fall sports season.

The Whitehall cross country teams are looking to turn around sub-.500 seasons from a year ago. The girls finished 6-11 in 2019, and they return Mackenzie Laub who finished 58th at last year’s District 11 meet with a time of 22:47.

“Workhorse Mackenzie Laub, who successfully does both running and club softball, is the team leader and number-two girls runner,” head coach Mike Lelko said.

Sophomore Mikayla Warren has been putting in quality miles and workouts since the pandemic, according to Lelko, and will be the girls number-one runner this season.

Other key, returning girls are: Lindsay Solderitch a senior, Brianna Uhnak a senior, Allison Pavone a junior and Christen Makhoul a sophomore.

“Four-hundred meter track specialist Lindsay Solderitch should be a strong number-three. A couple of underclass women can make an impact if they keep working hard,” said Lelko, who added this is his smallest rostered team with 13 girls.

The boys are looking to improve a 7-10 season from 2019.

Gavin Hagley returns after taking 35th in last year’s District 11 meet with a time of 18:02.

Other top, returning boys are: Jakob Schlosser a senior, Jeffrey Warren a senior, Sean Connolly a junior, Christian Foehrkolb a sophomore and Vinson Eggleston a sophomore.

“Junior Gavin Hagley should be the number-one boy for the second year, but there will be some teammates breathing down his neck,” Lelko said. “The boys team needs to be competitive and stay focused in order to be successful in this abbreviated season.” Lelko expects juniors Brenden Sargent and Kyle Platton to excel and help the boys team.