For the uninitiated, cross-country can look like an individual sport, but it's one of the truest team sports there is. A team's score is the sum of its top five finishers—meaning all five matter, and there's nowhere to hide. For the first time this season, WRA fielded a full scoring squad, and the Pioneers responded with a runner-up finish behind perennial power Beaumont.

The key to making it happen was junior Colleen McAlonie '27, who made her career debut despite battling sore shins and nerves. She finished 28th overall in 25:23.2, 5th for the team—enabling the Pioneers to post a score. Colleen's toughness gave her teammates the chance to race, and her performance was, in every sense, a win.

Up front, sophomore Kobi Marsden '28 ran a patient race, shadowing Laurel's #1 runner for two miles before surging ahead to finish 7th overall. Junior Ellie Flores '27 followed with a gritty 10th-place run, sprinting past Laurel's top runner in the final 100 meters in perhaps the team's biggest individual surprise of the day. Junior co-captains Leah Petras '27 and Caroline West '27 closed out the scoring, finishing 12th and 17th, respectively. Both were tasked with shadowing specific Laurel runners and executed their races with composure and strong finishing kicks—Leah edging Laurel's #2 by two seconds and Caroline battling stride-for-stride with their #3.

The Pioneers' pre-race mission was to beat rival Laurel, and every runner delivered. There's running, and then there's racing—and at Gilmour, the Pioneers chose to race. They found their fifth runner, beat their rival, and walked away with a runner-up trophy.

The squad now looks ahead to the prestigious Legends Meet on Saturday, October 4, eager to continue building on the momentum of a breakthrough performance.