"And Then There Was One..."

For the FHS XC Girls Team, the 2021 season proved to be an onslaught of setbacks. Last season's top runner, Devyn Montiel, started the season hurt and missed our first meet of the 2021 season. Newcomer Wendy Behunin (FR) suffered an injury at the Globe HS Meet on 9/3/21 and would miss the rest of the season. Our lone senior, Arial Acosta, competed in our first 3 meets of this season and eventually quit. Linden Zimmerman (SO) transferred in and was not eligible to compete this season for FHS XC. Girls quit as the season began, while others were kept from competition due to academic or disciplinary reasons.

At the end of the 2021 season, FHS XC had only one female in uniform and getting her to the starting line was a tough task in itself. Andrea Burns (SO) spent the first half of the season in the athletic trainer's room on the injured list. Burns started her cross country career at our Home Meet on 10/6/21. From that point on, Burns began to make her mark on the FHS XC Program.

In the 6 races she competed in this season, Burns recorded the 3 fastest 5K finishing times since Karly Keller's 2018 Sectionals performance. Burns also recorded the fastest time for the FHS Girls Varsity XC Team at the Sectionals course at Crossroads Park since Keller's 2018 finish.

Burns' 28:48 finish at the Rattler In Honor of Richard Haines Invitational on 10/9/21 proved to be the fastest finish for our girls team for the 2021 season up to that point. Burns continued her improvement at the Eye of the Tiger Invitational at Marana HS on 10/23/21, finishing in 27:31. Then, on 10/27/21, at the meet hosted by Vista Grande HS at Villago Park in Casa Grande, AZ, she set her new PR, finishing in 26:42.

At the AIA Div. III East Sectionals Competition at Crossroads Park in Gilbert, AZ, on 11/3/21, Burns finished in 27:54, which would be the best Sectionals time recorded by a member of our FHS Girls Varsity XC Team since Karly Keller set her own PR back in 2018 (25:20).

In a season where so much went wrong for the FHS Girls XC Team, Andrea Burns made her first season of cross country competition a memorable one. Her individual accomplishments and the amount of progress she made in what equates to just half of the 2021 competition season provides Coach Lewis with an abundance of optimism for the future of the FHS Girls XC Program.