The thundering of hearts and feet are all one can hear in the midst of a cross country meet. Lanie Rodgers pulls ahead in nearly every race and shows the Argyle spirit in every top five and first place finish she has earned.

“As far as competition goes, her numbers speak for themselves; she’s really been doing great,” girls cross country varsity coach Greg Martin said.

One of her favorite places is Knob Hill where she can run in the trees and use her independent spirit to run wherever she wants.

“I love being individual,” Rodgers said. “Of course I had lots of help to get to where I am, but it’s the work that I put in and that feels great to be able to count on myself in cross country.”

Rodgers works hard in her sport and likes to do two miles for races. She has been called the number one cross country runner and helps her team get up and running with her contagious attitude.

“Lanie Rodgers has contributed to the team by having lots of enthusiasm in practice and it’s contagious,” Martin said. “She has that attitude on a day by day basis.”

Rodgers started running in seventh grade when her parents wanted to keep her in shape. At first, she did not like cross-country much, but when she discovered that she was great at it, she kept doing it and learned to like it.

“I really only genuinely started liking it during last year,” Rodgers said. “I just thought I’d keep doing it cause I was pretty decent at it.”

Rodgers has had a clear picture of where her running goals are from when she joined to now and would like to roll with things and see where her future takes her. 

“It’s a mental game really,” Rodgers said. “The body does what your mind tells it to and there’s this mental threshold of where you keep pushing even when you are tired and I think that once everyone on the team breaks that we will be fantastic.”

Although she doesn’t know what is to come, one thing is for sure: Rodgers will continue to work to be better for herself and her team.

“Whatever happens, happens for college,” Rodgers said. “But I would really like to get more base training and I would love to get faster with more distance added on to that speed.”