The IMS cross country team is a junior team, with the graduation of state qualifier Cody Miller, someone will need to step up and take his spot.

On the boy’s side, IMS brings back Kirby Shetler, Rex Yoder and Kobi Russom, and on the girl’s side Renee Buckwalter returns as the most experienced runner.

Head coach Marty Gingerich said how he defines success this year won’t be where his team finishes at meets.

“Defining success can be seen differently by different people, for me and for out teams it is knowing that we are doing the best that we are capable of doing,” Gingerich said. “It involves orienting our life in way that we can get the best results running and that involves, so not only the training that we do, but what we eat, how much we sleep, when we sleep and training, when you run a lot, sometimes you have aches and pains and knowing how to deal with that in a timely manner.”

IMS will run 10 meets this year, starting with their own early bird meet on September 3, they will also run at the Mid-Prairie meet on September 24. On October 3 they will go to the Little Hawk invite at the University of Iowa, before they hold their second meet on October 7.

Conference will be October 10 and the regional and district meet is October 24.