“We will be South Seven Conference champions this year.”

That statement stuck with me entering the Wildcat Fast Start after interviewing Poshard and Harlan, who planned on giving Donaldson and the Wildcats a run for their money — no pun intended. It was tough getting a clean read on the South Seven in the meet given that many schools were without some of their top runners; but one thing that did stand out, however, was Marion’s depth.

The Wildcats got an impressive third-place finish from freshman Dylon Nalley with the aforementioned Stone finishing fourth that day. Nalley and Stone were amongst Meyke Lomax (7th), Logan Morgan (8th), Cade Parks (10th) and Christopher LaChiana (11th), who helped lead Marion to a first place finish.

The final tally ended with Marion outscoring Carbondale by 43 points despite Terriers junior Alex Partlow’s blazing time of 15:57. The Wildcats depth proved to be the deciding factor like many coaches had predicted, leaving Baker thrilled with his team in the post race huddle.

“We’re used to having Isaac right up there with Benja, so there’s no doubt that he would have been a big help,” Baker told me after the race. “We luckily have enough depth that the team stepped up and filled some of those gaps without a problem.”

Baker’s roster is young, hungry and ready to push for conference titles in years to come.