Never in her 35 years of coaching has Sue Wright seen such generous interest in the cross country program as she is experiencing this season.In recent years, fielding a varsity crew of five has been a formidable task.This season her chore will be deciding who is worthy to compete from among her healthy roster of 23 competitors.“This is fantastic,” said the Wright City coach. “It really is. We had some kids that were on the fence, but we encouraged them come out for the team, and it’s paid off.”The boys team is especially deep, with 19 runners.Wright sees this as a product of last year’s success, when the entire boys team qualified for the MSHSAA Championships.The colorful cast of seniors is led by Ben Randolph, who is balancing his time between football and cross country this fall. He will run in the No. 1 spot after pacing the Wildcats at state last year with a 59th-place finish.“Ben is putting in a lot of work on his own,” said Wright. “The other guys realize he’s not going to be at practice with us, so they’ve stepped up to take a leadership role.”The remaining varsity spots aren’t necessarily locked in.Staying healthy will be crucial for senior Brenden Geier to maintain the No. 2 position.“Brenden has worked very hard and looks good,” said Wright. “He had a lot of illness last year both in cross country and track, so we hope he can overcome that.”The third varsity spot will be handled by either Austin Marsh or Cody Klemp.“Cody has run really well this past week,” said Wright. “He’s the most inexperienced, but he fights for everything and that’s what makes him successful.”Jackson Bruning and Zac Murri round out the varsity returners from last year’s program.While it’s his first season, Wright has been impressed with senior Dallas Deroy during his first year on the team.“Hopefully they know what they need to do mentally,” said Wright. “It’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. Some of the kids have a hard time getting into the mental aspect of it.”Last season the boys peaked near the end of the season, which was convenient, but Wright would like to see them experience that success on a more regular basis.“I’m really hoping what they did at conference and districts, they accomplish earlier in the season,” said Wright. “They all hit their high point at the same time. I’d like it a little bit earlier now that they’re seniors.”Unlike the boys, the girls team will be starting from scratch.Wright graduated her only female runner from last season, with Kaitlin Karney going on to run at Central Methodist.The opportunity to duplicate Karney’s success will fall into the hands of a couple of underclassmen.Sophomore Jenna Frytz is expected to lead the girls team after a successful track season last spring.“Of the four, Jenna is probably the most proven talent-wise,” said Wright. “They’re all hard workers and will go out and push themselves.”Also joining the team are sophomore Courtney Lawson and junior Kaylanna Mendenhall.Senior Sydney Winfrey has decided to pursue cross country for the first time after previously juggling band obligations.“These girls are running better than Kaitlin did when she first started, so there is the potential for them to make it to state,” said Wright. “It should be an exciting season.”

Senior Ben Randolph will be Wright City's No. 1 runner this season.

Derrick Forsythe Photo.