WORTON — Weather and course conditions permitting, Kent County High School will host its first cross country race in two years on Wednesday.
This will be KCHS’ season opener, as well as the coaching debut of Trojan track alumnus Patrick McColigan ’18.
Also worth noting: Kent County has a full girls team for the first time in recent memory.
The girls race will start at 4 p.m., followed by the boys race at 5 p.m. The nearly 3-mile course begins on the school campus, loops into Worton Park and then returns to campus.
Junior Andrew Buckle returns as the Trojans’ most experienced runner, and classmate Alden Swanson returns as their most decorated runner.
Buckle is a former team MVP and has asserted himself as a leader, encouraging his fellow runners to succeed and improve, according to coach McColigan.
As a rookie in 2023, Swanson won her first three races, then placed 19th of 248 at the Tidewater Fall Classic in Salisbury, then posted a top-15 finish in the Bayside Conference meet and followed that with a top-10 finish in the region to qualify for the state championships.
There isn’t a senior on this year’s team, which is good news for the building of the program.
There are seven juniors on the 11-runner roster, led by returnees Buckle, Swanson, McKenzie Smith and Lynden Saunders.
The other returnee is sophomore Ashton Dean.
First-year high school runners are juniors Jordana Capp, Asia Hart and Sydney Bortz; sophomore Janey Depp, who lettered in soccer last year; and freshmen Dalton Smith and Kato Swanson.
The Trojans have been practicing in earnest since Aug. 14, though Buckle, Smith, Capp and Smith got a head start with summer training three mornings a week.
“The preseason training was great,” coach McColigan told The Evening Enterprise. “We had more than half the team show up to all of the practices prior to school beginning.”
Already, McColigan said, “I have seen numerous improvements across the board such as a weekly mileage increase, faster mile times and increased stamina among all members of the team.”
He pointed to “promising signs of growth and perseverance.”
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Patrick McColigan, a first-year special education teacher at KCHS, takes the reins from his former coach Henry Sabetti, who led the program for nine years.
He was a three-season runner for the Trojans, and says cross country was always his passion and favorite season.
McColigan said “it’s been bittersweet being able to come back to Kent County.”
“When faced with the opportunity to become head coach, I was quite nervous. I knew the position would be a challenge, but having run the sport in the past, I had confidence I have everything it takes to help the kids succeed and grow,” he told The Evening Enterprise.
“I am excited for what the season has in store,” he added.
