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Central Cross Country Preview
Warriors aim to ‘get better every day’
Central Cross Country 2026
The Central cross country team includes (front, left to right) Katalina Dunlap, Blair Scherf, MacKenna Fisher, Harper Bennington, Hannah Friedlein, Emersyn Wiley, Payton Stannard; (middle) Lilly Becwar, Anya Whittle, Hadley Mueller, Tenley Meyer, Mya Gregerson, Claire Orr, Keagan Sylvester, Ayce Clark, Keegan Sperfslage; (back) Griffin Koehn, Oliver Holdsworth, Tyce Zittergruen, Breckon Holst, Cruz Healy, Cade Zittergruen, Jesse Polkinghorn, Lukas Friedlein, Mason Koehn and coach Mark Bauder. Not pictured are Corbyn Clark and Arthur Thiese. - photo by Audrey Posten

The Central boys and girls cross country teams aim to “get better every day” during the 2026 season.

The roster is 14 boys and 13 girls strong, including all five girls from a year ago and eight newcomers who will allow the Warriors to fill a JV and varsity team for the first time since 2022, according to assistant coach Martha Bauder.

Although the boys lost five experienced seniors from last year, Central boasts seven solid returning runners and will have seven newcomers who should eventually work their way into the mix.

Among the team’s boys returners is senior Jesse Polkinghorn, who was Central’s second runner most of the season and the school’s top finisher in the district meet last year. Also back are juniors Tyce Zittergruen (who was in Central’s top five last year), Breckon Holst, Griffin Koehn and Corbyn Clark and sophomores Cruz Healy (was in the top seven last year) and Lukas Friedlein.

For the girls, seniors Hannah Friedlein and Lilly Becwar and juniors Blair Scherf, Mya Gregerson and Payton Stannard are returning.

“All of these returners will be instrumental in helping the newcomers with meets and practice strategies, along with ways to navigate the mental and physical demands of cross country,” Bauder said.

Central’s newcomers include sophomores Katalina Dunlap, Anya Whittle, Tenley Meyer and Claire Orr, as well as eighth graders Emersyn Wiley, Hadley Mueller, MacKenna Fisher and Harper Bennington.

“These girls will make an immediate impact because of our new ability to have both a JV and a varsity team for meets. They also have quickly interspersed themselves among our returning team members, so that will create a level of competitiveness that should lead to improvements throughout the season,” according to Bauder.

In every workout, meet and the overall season, Central runners aim to learn something that will help them be successful in the future, Bauder said. The trick is to find the positive in every workout, every meet and every season, and to keep trying to win the battle of mental and physical fatigue.

“It can be something as seemingly small as not walking during a meet or workout, or cutting one second off your previous best, to running a career best and helping the team win the conference meet,” she shared.

Similarly, whether it’s getting faster, getting stronger, battling during races, eating healthier or getting proper sleep, there’s always something to improve on daily.

Bauder said Warrior runners will use this to hopefully be competitive in both JV and varsity races during meets.

“We would like to try to repeat as conference champions for the small school division in both boys races, the girls varsity race and add a championship for the girls JV race as well,” she reflected. “We would like to see all returning runners achieve a career best during the season.”

Central began its cross country season this week, at Edgewood-Colesburg on Aug. 25. Action will continue at MFL MarMac on Sept. 3.