For the first time in recent memory, Tam High girls cross country has managed to pass Redwood and take first place in the dual meet season, leading the rival school by one point with a score of 24-25. “We have a group of girls who runs well together and trains well together,” head coach Sylvia Goodman said. “It’s a solid group.”

When asked what came together this year to push Tam to victory, Coach Bob Freelander immediately responded, “We were better than them.” Redwood’s team has been thinned out this year due to the loss of their graduating class, giving Tam the opportunity to move up. “Redwood has one really strong runner, but Tam runs extremely well as a team,” Goodman said.

Regardless of the Hawks’ success during the regular season, the team is hesitant to claim victory this early, as MCALS awaits on Wednesday November 8th. “It’s up in the air right now; we beat them by one point, and we beat Drake by five points…we could go out, and all run really well, and win. Or we could go out and one of our top runners could be injured.” Goodman says there is an element of luck to the sport. “It all needs to come together on race day. We could have someone who is sick. When we raced against Drake, their top runner was out. There’s so many things that come into play.”

On Wednesday, it’s anyone’s game on the 3-mile MCAL course. “We will have to run our best races,” Goodman said, “It’s gonna be really exciting. I’m hoping. It would be so awesome.”