A cold rainy day in Aurora marked the last day of the boys cross-country season. The lone male runner from West Chicago, junior Danny McComb, ran in the class 3A Sectional hosted by West Aurora High School on Oct. 31.

McComb placed 30th out of 139 runners and finished with a time of 16:07.26.  To qualify for the state meet McComb needed to beat five more runners.

“I’m disappointed, but at least I have the confidence now that I have a really good chance to get in next year, I have one more chance,” McComb said.

The team as a whole did not qualify for the sectional, but has seen a lot of improvement over the season.

“Last year we came in dead last at our regionals and conference,” coach Brian Puchalski said. “We got Danny out this year, but we’re still in a hard regional.”

Since last year, the boys have been able to beat another school in conference and greatly improve their regional score. The recent improvement is an indicator of the hard work put in by team members for the past three years.

“When I came here, I couldn’t expect some of boys to run three miles. Now I can have them doing 12,” Puchalski said.

As the team and individuals continue to improve, McComb encourages them to always push themselves.

“In a sport like cross-country, you never know what can happen. If you just try, give it your all, if you just stop giving up and never stop believing in yourself- you will get better. You will feel proud for that and people will commemorate you,” McComb said.