“It wasn’t our best year in terms of success in medal count but we had a lot of people step up when it mattered in key events,” Tommy Viens, senior boys cross country captain said.

Although the Dallastown boys cross country team had a rough start, they bounced back despite early losses that had them out of the division race early in the season.

The team finished out the season with a record of 15-5, qualifying for the district championships where junior, Rory McCleary placed 21st. Key runners, Tommy Viens, Ryan Breighner, Rory McCleary, Rocco Dumnich and Brennan Donnelly led the team in a comeback season.

When asked to use one word to describe the team, junior Cole Rebert responded family – a word relating to the closeness of the group of boys.

“We’re all brothers,” Rebert said.

Relationships and work ethic go hand in hand when it comes to teamwork.

“The teams work ethic was so good. I honestly think that it was better than last year. We just wanted to have the same success of last year,” Viens said.

Although many may perceive cross country as a single person sport, it is majorly considered a team sport to many athletes who participate. All runners can affect the meet. One may not be able to help another while running, but the placements and the overall outcome of the meets rely on all runners.

“I think our advantage was the pack of guys running together.” Viens said, “Our 2-5 runners were within 45 seconds of each other almost every race and that’s what won us most of our meets,”

Despite the rough start to the season, the group of boys pulled through and finished the season successfully by making it all the way to Districts.

“This season as a whole was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed running with this group of guys that we had out this year.” Viens said