This year’s Highland Huskies girls’ cross country team will fall short of fielding a full squad this season. Head cross country coach Angie Strobel says her girls’ roster consists of a pair of athletes, including one returner from last season.

Sophomore Zoey Mahler is the lone returner for the Huskies. Strobel says Mahler is excited about this year’s volume increase from 4000 meters to 5000 meters. “She is just a machine so the longer for her, the better.” Strobel said, “She can pass those couple extra people that she isn’t able to pass with the shorter distance.”

The Board of the Directors of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union voted unanimously in January to increase the distance of Iowa girls high school cross country meets by six-tenths of a mile. This is the first change in distance running for girls cross country since 2002 when the distance was increased from 2 miles to 2.5 miles.

The other runner on the Huskies’ cross country squad is senior Cheyanne Adamson. Adamson spent the last two years of high school competing on the Huskies’ volleyball team. She collected 75 kills, 25 aces, and 113 digs last season.

Strobel says with just two girls on the squad, their team goals will be individually focused this season, “That’s all you can do with the team just because the girls team is a team of two.” Strobel said, “They will hopefully push each other and I will just be very individualized with them in their goals.”

The Highland boys and girls cross country teams open their 2015 season on Tuesday, September 1, competing in the Iowa Mennonite School Invitational.