The PV Girls Cross Country Team set the tone for the 2025-2026 season at their home opener: the Spartan Invitational. Here, five varsity athletes placed in the top 20. Despite losing a few key seniors from last year’s team, the girls have continued to be successful.
Losing the top athletes on a team is always difficult, but the PV Spartans have found ways to be successful without last year’s seniors and with this year’s newcomers. Head Coach Jane Wheeler has the utmost confidence in her girls. “We have a great group of senior leaders on the team this year. In particular Brynn Edgin, Jaylee Duncan, Selah Flanigan and Kailee Wilson,” shared Coach Wheeler.
Something new this year that Coach Wheeler has noticed is that her athletes are eager to learn about all the details of training and racing being taught to them. “This has really helped our goals excel, no matter what their initial ability was when they started with the team,” Wheeler said.
While the Spartans’ training methods were proven successful in past years, there is always room for improvement. Making the adjustments to the training and racing methods for Spartans this year has been helpful, seeing as the girls are currently ranked number one for 4A in the state of Iowa.
Some recent team achievements include winning the team title with 39 points at the Jim Boughton Invitational in Dubuque, Iowa, third-place team at the Richard Springs Invite at Peoria-ND, Illinois and winning the All-American Invite at Luther College.
These achievements are not because of any athlete in particular but because of the team as a whole. The team is high-performing and always striving for greatness. They are not afraid of a challenge, and they embrace hard work.
While this year’s seniors have stepped up as leaders, the newer, younger girls have also been instrumental in the team’s success. In particular, freshman Sarah Foad has been a superstar athlete. “We are focusing on supporting each other and getting better every day,” Foad said.
Overall, the Spartans have started the season strong and hope to maintain that momentum. The Mississippi Athletic Conference, commonly referred to as MAC, meet is scheduled for October 15th. It will be hosted by Davenport North. After MAC, the Spartans will attend the state qualifying meet at Crow Creek Park in Davenport, Iowa on October 22nd. Finally, the state meet will be held on November first at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Here, the Spartans hope to claim another state title.
