To say that the Highland Baptist Christian School cross country team is good would be an understatement. 

After finishing second in 2022 and claiming the school’s first-ever cross country state championship in 2023, the Lady Bears know a little something about winning. 

On Monday, the team took its first step towards a state title repeat, claiming an eighth-consecutive District 6-1A championship behind Ella Blake’s school-record time of 18:52. 

Junior Madalynn Salsman placed third with a time of 19:34, followed by senior Chloe Delahoussaye (21:18), sophomore Amelia Perello (21:54), senior Lillian Nicholson (22:47) and junior Sophie Morris (23:25). The girls team set a new school record for team average time (20:52) in addition to being overall meet champions. 

The HBCS boys also performed well at the district meet, taking all the podium finishes behind junior Tyler Blissett’s 17:40 time. David Nowakowski (17:44), Richard Nowakowski (18:40) and Alex Abshire (28:40) rounded out the boys results. 

In only her second season with the team, junior Madalynn Salsman has continued to make a major impact. Last year, Salsman led the HBCS team at the Division V state meet with a time of 19:50.5. Salsman credits coach Toby Blissett’s disciplined training schedule for getting the best out of her. 

“I knew that if I put all the effort in, I could do it,’ Salsman said of performing well last season. “I had Ella (Blake) with me as well, she and I work off of each other really well. I hadn’t had good training in a couple of years, so coming in and working hard with Coach Toby was a big help.”

Salsman and Blake are the two top performers for the Lady Bears this season, pushing each other to perform their best. For Salsman, approaching running as a team sport was new for her. 

“I always thought that cross country was an individual sport, but when I came here I saw that it was more team focused. There’s a lot of team bonding here, so I really enjoy it more. There’s definitely a lot of pressure (to perform well), but it’s not as bad as it used to be. I have my whole team around me and we all do our part. I look forward to coming to practice. We’re all friends and that makes it fun.”

Senior Chloe Delahoussaye agreed, adding that last year’s state meet performance taught her the importance of each runner’s contribution to the team. 

“At first, I thought of cross country as an individual thing,” she said. “You’re trying to be better than your last time, but last year proved that every point matters and we need each other to win. One person can’t win the meet by themselves, so it’s definitely a team sport.”

Cross country might be a team sport, but that doesn’t mean that each runner isn’t constantly challenging themselves to set new personal records. While the top performers set the tone for the team during the race, the seniors are responsible for keeping the team focused on the long-term goals.

“I feel like there’s some pressure because everyone is looking to you, but we have a good team and we all respect each other,” said senior Lillian Nicholson. “Chloe and I have learned to work together this season, so it’s going well. We’re going to work really hard to win state this year.”

Nobody on the team wants to be successful more than head coach Toby Blissett, who has developed a year-long training program that incorporates the cross country, indoor track and field and outdoors track and field seasons into one continuous cycle. 

“We won state on November 13th, so we started working towards this season on November 14th,” Blissett joked. “We started about four weeks after the state meet last year, so it was about mid-December when we got going. We treat the indoor and outdoor track season as a single season, so we did that and then took another short break in June.”

Between summer camps, track and field seasons and constant practices, the recurring theme for the season has been to make the necessary improvements to win again in 2024. According to Blissett, the way the team has prepared for the season hasn’t been much different than last year when they were chasing the title for the first time. 

“We have to be careful that we don’t expect it to just be handed to us because we won it last year,” Blissett said. “We’re returning our top five, but so is our biggest competitor, Christ Episcopal. The day after we won last year I told them that 2023’s good enough won’t be good enough for 2024, so that’s been something we remind ourselves of throughout the year. We’re running well right now, and it’s good for this time of the year, but it won’t be good enough for state. We want to keep improving.”

The improvements are noticeable already. Ella Blake’s 20:18 time from last year’s state meet is  almost a minute and a half slower than she is running now. Madalynn Salsman has also shown major improvement, shaving nearly 20 seconds off of her fourth-place time last year. 

“Our hard work is starting to show and I can tell that we’re all about to hit our peaks,” said senior Chloe Delahoussaye. “I’m so excited for state because I know we’re going to do well and get the job done again.”