The Penn Girls Cross Country team started their 2020 season strong by winning the Warsaw Tiger Invite, their first meet of the year. Despite the hot summer temperatures and humidity, Penn came in first place with a score of 31, defeating nine other teams.
Penn runner Mary Eubank was the first to cross the finish line with a time of 20 minutes and 15 seconds, her teammates Morgan Gannon and Nicole Marshall following close behind (in 5th and 6th place respectively, all of whom finished the race in less than 21 minutes). Even in the hot and sticky conditions–it was 86 degrees at the time of the race–every Penn runner finished the 5k in less than 30 minutes.
“I thought I was doing something wrong!” Mary Eubank laughed when she told PNN about the race. As a freshman, the Warsaw Tiger Invite was her first meet. Despite this, she embraced the newness of high school competition and finished like a champion.
“You need to love the sport, and you need to believe that you can be good at it,” she said. “Those two things are kind of related–the more you love the sport, the more you believe you can do it, and the more you believe you can do it, the more you love the sport.”
Micheal Clements, the coach of the Girls Cross Country team, was extremely proud of how all the runners performed. “I am thrilled with the way we opened the season,” he told PNN. “It’s always nice to win, but more than anything I was excited with the way we competed.”
Mikan Gensic 
Nathan Zizzo