Runners have goals and the Poplar Bluff cross country team is no different. For senior Ben Till, it's breaking 19 minutes for the first time, while Katie Sliger wants to consistently run in the 19-minute range as she did two years ago.
"Really it's all made in practices," Till said. "You never go to a race and run it there. You run your entire race in practice and then you come to the race and that's how you compete."
Till gave credit to his coach, Beth Lewis-Muse.
"If any of us are good, it's not because we're good, it's because Coach Lewis made us good," he said. "I'm bad, not because she made me bad, but because I skip practices."
The Mules open the season August 30 in Perryville at the St. Vincent Invitational, getting their first chance at running a 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) course.
While each course offers a different level of difficulty, and thus times vary between them, there's one place the Mules are preparing for at the end of their season --Jackson City Park. It will host both the conference and district meets.
"We've ran at Jackson so many times it's nice adding something new in," Sliger said of the Mules skipping the Jackson Invitational.
As a sophomore, Sliger ran the course in 19 minutes, 55 seconds to place fourth at the district meet to start her journey to the state meet, where she placed 37th. On the same Jackson course last year she ran 20:45, advancing to the sectional meet, but missed the state cut a week later by 49 seconds.
"I think she has a bit of regret," Lewis-Muse said. "Last season kind of slipped away from her."
Sliger said it was more of a mental wall than running into one.
"It was just having a junior year with hard classes, and trying to balance everything was a struggle," Sliger said.
Sliger is joined by fellow seniors MacKenzie Dowd, Alexa Owings and Brooke Slayton on the girls team while Till, Austin Aubuchon, Wesley Moore return with Dakota Morlan joining them.
Katelyn Moeller, a junior, missed the sectional cut by two places, or 15 seconds, last year while Moore placed 39th in the boys district meet, or 14 seconds from advancing.
Moeller has been running during the preseason with Sliger, something Lewis-Muse said they both need.
"It compliments their running relationship really well," Lewis-Muse added.
Slayton, Dowd, Owings have seen "huge improvements" during the two-week preseason camp, Lewis-Muse said, as they've gotten serious about training for their senior year while sophomores Paige Bradley and Peyton Moore return after running varsity at the district meet last fall.
A freshman group of Kenya Jones, Natalie Clark, Alexis Richardson, Ava Smith and Demi Wisdom join the team with juniors Hope Cram and Raegan McAtee.
Wesley Moore and Till are the only returning starters from the varsity team for the boys.
Moore made the sectional cut as a sophomore by running a 17:53 at Jackson for 28th place. He led the Mules at the conference meet in 12th place last year and ran an 18:16 at Jackson.
Lewis-Muse said Moore has had some company, running during the preseason with freshman Jaden Deaton.
"Jaden has got more speed than Wesley, Wesley obviously has more experience so Wesley is kind of teaching Jaden how to run that 5K," Lewis-Muse said. "Jaden is reteaching Wesley turnover and speed.
"They have a really respectful relationship with each other as far as running. ...they understand they're good for one another."
Aubuchon and junior Jack Harrison are back looking to break 20 minutes for the first time and move into the varsity lineup while the rest of the roster features newcomers.
Seth Ingle, a junior, moved in from Bernie while sophomore Ben Fiske and junior Dylan Cisne have offered to run while also playing on the soccer team. Ross Dare, a sophomore, joins the team with freshmen Brent Worley and Brendan Yarbro.
The new runners join a group that are entering their sixth year running.
"I know that if I am not running, I will miss it," Owings said. "I will go out and do something."
Owings said to understand cross country it takes a good run first and that adrenaline rush at the end.
"I really like the people," Dowd said. "You become friends with everybody and I like the environment and I love meets. They're a lot of fun and you make a lot of memories with everybody."
Poplar Bluff will host its meet Oct. 5 at the new high school campus for the first time.
Lewis-Muse said the course will start behind Bobby Strenfel Field, cross behind the tennis courts and do a loop in the area on the north side of the campus that features a long hill that's about a quarter of a mile.