After a 10-year absence, Dave McFadden has resumed his role as coach of the Mariner cross country teams. He said his squads are in the middle of a “rebuilding year.”
“Most of our varsity runners are sophomores,” he said. “We’re doing really well right now with what we have. Our big goal is to change the culture for cross country at Mariner. There hasn’t been a distance running culture here for a long time. That’s an added challenge, but the kids are working hard and focused. Every kid has improved their time on courses they’d run before.”
The Marauders have a couple of runners who might be able to challenge for state meet berths — senior Brandon Lopez and sophomore Kara Sevigny.
“The biggest thing with Brandon is his work ethic,” McFadden said. “In reality, cross country is not his first love, but he knows that cross country is a necessary step to be successful in track and field, and he’s not approaching cross country as a ‘second sport’ this fall.
“Kara’s running fantastic right now. She’s doing things in practice that we didn’t think she’d be doing quite yet. She’s one of the kids that we want to build the program around. She really understands the running culture.”
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