Year after year, the Malvern Cross Country seems to add Championship trophies to an endless pile of accomplishments, and this year they expect no different.

This year, the cross country team has already won two big invitational meets, the Abington Invitational and the Briarwood Invitational, and dominated a dual meet. Jaxson Hoey ‘16 won the Briarwood Invitational with the third fastest time ever recorded at the 5K race, 15:30.  His time surpassed the school record, and landed him in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hoey also has high hopes for the team this year.  “Our goal since freshman year is to make Nike cross nationals as a team.  We have been working hard and building up for about two years now up to the climax which is this year.  Of course our goal is to win Inter-Ac’s, States, and have an undefeated invite season, and get better as individuals, but the Everest of the past couple of years has been getting into the national championship.”

At the helm and leading this year’s team are seniors Billy McDevitt and Ryan Doane.  Doane, is accustomed to being a leader as he is already the student council president.  When the captains were asked about how they were going to lead the team this year, both said their main goal is to motivate their runners into doing their best.

“This year, one of our main goals is to go to Nationals, and I think just talking about that everyday and keeping that in our minds will motivate us to reach it there,” said McDevitt. 

Co-captain Doane added, “We are all running much more. A few of us are going to start doubling and get some extra miles in before school. This is a huge year for us and we know we have to give it our all.”

“I have plenty of confidence in this year’s team,” said last season’s co-Captain Dan Ferraiolo.  “In my opinion, this team has greater talent and experience.  We were so close to making the Nike Cross Country Nationals last year, and I have the utmost confidence in them to make a good attempt to get there.”

As they prepare for a challenging second half of the season, the team hopes to keep up the good work.  ‘We are all running well right now and intend to keep doing so,” said captain McDevitt.

It is clear that this team is fueled by motivation and hard work as they sprint towards their goal of winning a national championship and repeating their state and Inter-Ac championships.