Liberal’s cross country boys and girls have been waiting for this. After increased miles this summer, Liberal’s boys and girls are looking for hardware in 2009. The LHS boys won the WAC and the regional titles last year and finished fifth at state under WAC coach of the year Darren Bevis. Key Redskins include senior Morgan Riggs who has competed twice at state, junior Alejandro Avila, junior Jaime Minjarez, junior Alan Grajeda, senior Benito Rivera, senior Juan Carlos Rodriguez, and sophomore Victor Avila. Minjarez says the Redskins have put in the work. “We’ve had a lot of training this summer,” Minjarez said. “I think that’s really going to help us. These practices are more intense this year and I think that’s really going to help us this year.”

The Liberal girls are a young team. In their first meet, all of their varsity runners were sophomores or freshmen. Key Lady Skins include: freshman Destiny Lucero, freshman Gabby Galan, senior Lesli DeLeon, junior Morgan Wills, junior Lauren Sumner, sophomore Flor Parral, and senior Nohemi Hernandez. Senior Kayla Varnes is injured after several years of varsity experience. Lucero medaled during her first meet at Great Bend which she says surprises even her. “Actually, I didn’t believe it at first,” Lucero said. “The only time I did believe it was when I went up there to get the medal because I was running against senior and juniors.”

Liberal runs at Hesston on Thursday.