The  cross country team competed in a quad meet at the Grant Bulldog Sports Complex. The cross country team competed against Grayslake Central, Round Lake High School, and Grant Community High School. The team was supposed to separate the runners from boys and girls, but because of a weather siren going off, they pushed all the runners into one group. Grayslake North finished 3rd place in the quad with a score of 87 for girls and 66 for boys. 

The 3rd place finisher, Armani Diaz, is the top runner for both boys and girls and had a time of 17.16 at the meet. 

“I had a rough start to the season, but now I’m getting back on track and I feel more confident about my times now than I was feeling at the beginning of the season,” senior Armani Diaz said.

The lack of competition last year because of COVID-19 regulations not allowing competition out of state and not allowing invitationals kept faster runners from experiencing as much competition. 

“Last year we didn’t have a lot of invites, so I didn’t really have a lot of competition to go against, so I was basically running on my own, but this year, I’m able to push myself more and go against a lot of really good runners in the area,” Diaz said. 

The girl’s top runner, Nicole Brown, finished in 8th place for girls with a time of 20:59. She came in 44th place all-around.

“I think the season has been going pretty well. Its been different because we didn’t have a real season until now,” junior Nicole Brown said. 

Owen Davies, the 4th place finisher in the meet, ended with a time of 17:27. He feels like the season has started off alright compared to his last two years on the team. 

“I think I’ve done alright compared to the last couple of years. I haven’t done as good. I didn’t have much of a summer, though,” junior Owen Davies said. 

The team has been trying not only to PR, personal record, this season but also trying to get back together as a group. Last year restricted a lot of team bonding and all-around communication between teammates because of COVID-19, so the team has been trying to come together again. 

“I feel like there’s more of a connection between everybody now because we haven’t had a connection in the past year because of COVID,” Davies said. 

The cross country team’s next meet is an invitational on Saturday, September 25 at the Grant Bulldog Complex against 19 other teams.