Out of 224 runners in the girl's AA state cross country meet last year Danville placed seven of them into the top 62, and claimed a 3rd place finish in the state meet behind Villa Maria and Quaker Valley. So with a solid core returning the Lady Ironmen are racing towards the top.
"Oh! My gosh. This team is incredible the fact that we have been able to line up so many teams, and do well all year we've been able to create this amazing bond between each other and it is honestly like a family," said Elaina Klinger.
Behind Klinger who finished 7th last year fellow junior Marisa Maffei took 8th. They are being pushed by sophomore Emma Mikita. Depth is not a problem with this team.
"We just have such a good lineup this year. We only lost a few strong runners. The freshman coming up doing very good as well. And especially with like Emma is doing great this year along with a lot of the other girls we are only getting stronger," said Marisa Maffei.
"We do distance runs and it can get like up to 8 miles on the weekends, and over the summer we ran pretty long a lot of mileage over the summer really helps," said Emma Mikita.
During the early part of the season head coach Jeff Brandt can see a decrease in times overall for his Danville team.
"We do. And the girl's have high goals as well. We definitely want to be in the top 2 because you get a trophy for that, and I think we have a shot to get first. We have to keep everyone healthy. Right now we are running faster than we did last year at this time. We have a good outlook on things," said Jeff Brandt.
There is plenty of competition in District IV and across the state for Danville, but this group relies on consistency and a quality core to win. Steve Lloyd reporting for Newswatch 16 sports from Northumberland County.