Penguins thrive to improve

First time Cross Country Coach Carly Hammond has experienced her first two meets of the season as head coach of the Penguins and already, the group has impressed her.

"The girls have absolutely blown my expectations out of the water," Coach Hammond said. "Practicing the last three weeks, the girls have surprised themselves in many ways, but after going to the Poplar Invitational they have taken their performances to a whole new level."

The Poplar Invitational was the team's first race on Saturday, September 5. It was there that Coach Hammond saw her runners' times improve by up to five minutes.

"It was hard not to get a little emotional after all of them had finished," Coach Hammond said. "Going into Havre, the girls had goals in mind of cutting even more time and a couple were able to do that."

Sophomore Kendra Cummings led all Penguin runners in the Havre Invitational with a time of 27:14.1. She carved close to 14 seconds off of her time of 27:28.1 in Poplar but Coach Hammond knows that she wants to do better.

"Kendra was hoping to cut a whole minute off of her time, I think she was a little disappointed," Coach Hammond said. " In reality, when you've gotten into better running shape and the season is well on its way, 14 seconds is HUGE. I love that she is challenging herself."

In Havre, Junior Hannah Hanley was a couple of runners behind Cummings and posted a time of 27:39.20. It was Hanley's first meet of the season after returning from a foot injury.

"She was happy about her time and I think this is a great starting point for her," Coach Hammond said. "Her and Kendra started in different waves of the race. I'm excited for these two girls to start together because they definitely push each other competitively."

Freshman Ava Hanley posted a time of 30:17.69 and senior Kelsee Cummings posted a time of 31:27.8, which was an improvement on her time of 31:41.2 in the Poplar Meet.