CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School cross country Coach Morgan Crawford likes what she’s seen from this year's team.
The Bulldogs are young, but improving every meet.
“So far it’s been an awesome year,” Crawford said. “We are building. We didn’t know exactly where we would be, but we had some great newcomers to the team.
“Last week we actually raced for the second time and most of the team had personal records. All of our varsity girls were under 22 (minutes) and all of our varsity boys were under 19, which is better than I’ve seen for our team in years.”
Allison Ammons, a junior, is the Crestview girls' undisputed leader.
“Allison was our leader last year and she’s here again,” Crawford said. “She was a sophomore last year and went to regionals by herself and she’s leading a younger group of girls.
“She returns as a captain and is trying to get some of our sophomores and freshmen to step it up and get the whole team to regionals this year.”
Sophomores Jazmyn Martinez and Chelsea Aguilar are trying to push themselves to keep up with Ammons, and they think they can do it, Crawford said.
The boys are more of a mystery coming into the season.
The boys team is heavier with upperclassmen than the girls as Johnson is a senior and Kannapel and Taylor are juniors, Crawford said.
Joe Printy, last year's top Bulldog runner, graduated.
“We didn’t know who we were going to get (to lead the boys),” Crawford said, “but Brandon Johnson, Matt Kannapel and Trenton Taylor have all stepped up.
“Matt, Trenton and Brandon are all kind of running together. We haven’t had one stick out as the definite leader (in time) this year.”
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bulldog cross country team takes strides toward improvement