Mt. Vernon’s Hannah Hauser crosses the finish line in third place at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet at the Blue River Cross Country Course.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — New coach Madison Roeder has inherited a nice situation in leading the Mt. Vernon girls cross country program.
Like last season under coach Brian Williams, the Marauders look to make another deep postseason run under the tutelage of their new mentor.
Roeder takes over a program that has won Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference titles the last two seasons and has advanced as a team to consecutive semi-states.
“They’ve made it really easy on me. I’ve told people that I’m really spoiled,” Roeder said. “Not only with the success that they’ve had, but stemming from that, the team culture that’s already in place as well. I can show up to practice 15 minutes late, and they’ll already be going through warmups on their own and ready to rock.”
Last season, the Marauders had to reload with talent to make the postseason run that they did. This time around, they return many of the key pieces from last season.
Sophomore Hannah Hauser will lead the pack once again, this time with added experience under her belt.
A season ago, as a freshman, she won the county meet, was third at conference, fifth at the Mt. Vernon Sectional and was named the Hancock County girls cross country athlete of the year.
“It’s going to be her to go out and be our front-runner. Even when you see good success as a freshman, you still kind of hold yourself back a bit. In the workouts I’ve seen so far, though, we’ve set a time, and I’ve just told her, ‘You need to run this time, you’re that good and need to trust it,’” Roeder said. “She’s going to be our leader in that way, maybe not in the prototypical team leader sense, but she’s going to go out and lead by example and how she runs.”
Already a dominant runner as a freshman, according to Roeder, Hauser has found confidence in herself and has grown even stronger as a runner after this past year’s track season.
“Hannah is definitely ready to take that next step,” Roeder said. “Just with how fast she’s able to run and, more importantly, the shift that she saw in her confidence during track season.”
It isn’t just Hauser that the Marauders return at the top of their lineup.
Juniors Emma Gale and Julia Iserloth are both back after being key scorers for the team last season.
Gale was second to Hauser at the county meet, fifth at the conference meet, sixth at the sectional, and was the team’s highest placing runner at the regional (10th). Iserloth was fifth at county and 11th at conference.
“Both of them have looked really good so far this summer,” Roeder said. “They should both be some of our top runners again.”
Along with those three returning, another Marauder runner that has already proven herself, will be joining the team for her first season in the sport.
Senior Emma Gasiorek, a key piece of the Marauders track team, is expected to be a top runner for this year’s cross country team.
“I’m not going to put any limits on her, she could easily be our second-best runner throughout the season,” Roeder said. “She’s looked really good so far.”
Along with those four, the Marauders are a deep team due to Roeder coaching the Mt. Vernon Middle School team last season.
The roster currently sits at 22 girls, up from 10 last year.
Roeder’s familiarity with coaching the incoming freshmen has helped with that.
“Seven of the 22 girls are freshmen that I coached last year, which I think helps. I coached all of them in cross country and track, so they got a full year of me as their coach already,” Roeder said. “Knowing half the team already really helped over the summer at some optional practices because I really got to focus on the sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I knew those freshmen were already taken care of.”
One of the freshmen that Roeder expects to be a key runner is Makenna Laffey, who placed 10th at last year’s middle school state finals.
The one thing evading the Marauders lately has been a trip to the state finals. The last two seasons, the team has placed 18th at semi-state. With this year’s roster, Roeder expects that breakthrough to be coming soon.
“They’ve seen great success the past couple of years, and my goal is to continue that,” Roeder said. “Our goal is to go out and win the county and conference again and be threatening for this team to make that push through for a state berth.”
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2023 Mt. Vernon girls cross country schedule
Date;Opponent;Time
Aug. 12;at Valley Cross Kickoff (Terre Haute);9 a.m.
Aug. 19;at Plainfield Invite;8:30 a.m.
Aug. 26;Mt. Vernon Invite;9 a.m.
Sept. 2;at Marion Invitational (IWU);TBD
Sept. 9;at Eagle Classic (Brown County);8:30 a.m.
Sept. 16;at Golden Bear Invitational (Shelbyville);8:30 a.m.
Sept. 23;Hoosier Heritage Conference (Shelbyville);10 a.m.
Sept. 30;at Twilight Indiana Runner (Terre Haute);TBD
Oct. 7;at Eagle Invite (Taylor University);TBD
