After losing the North Cascade Conference championship meet by one point to southern rival Lakewood the week before, Mt. Baker won the district 1 championship by taking six of the top ten spots. Among the highlights of the meet was the 1st place finish of the injured team captain, Karin Pfeiffer-Hoyt. Karin had not been able to run at all for the four weeks prior to the district championship due to a stress fracture, but cruised to an easy victory on the Skagit Valley College 5k course.

"It was a phenomenal team effort." said Coach Dominic Urbano. "This group really wanted to make a statement. I would say that six of the top ten spots and 23 points, is certainly a statement." "Our freshmen really came through for us." added Coach Urbano.

The state championship meet in Pasco was held on November 3rd. The girls had one week to refocus their energy from getting through districts to being competitive at the state championships. Once again they came together with a total team effort. The girls overcame a slow start by running the second half of the race extremely well. Once again the team was lead by Karin Pfeiffer-Hoyt who managed to complete the race in 7th over-all. There was no question that this team deserved the 3rd place trophy that was awarded to them.

Due to injury and sickness the girls team was unable to run at full srength during most of the regular season. At the October 3rd Mt. Baker invitational Karin Pfeiffer-Hoyt showed how stong she was by setting school record and placing third over-all. Unfortunately she suffered a stress fracture in her foot during that same race. She would not run again until the district championship meet. Taking her spot as the number one runner was freshman Bobeya Krishnek. Bobeya ran with great consistency and poise as she shouldered the responsibility of leading the team during the month of October. Also down was Junior standout Cara Cannon. An ill timed bout of appendicitis kept Cara out of several October races. Despite being without two of their top five runners the Mountaineers showed that they had depth when they tied for first at Lynden's Borderline invitational.

For the first time in 26 years the Mt. Baker cross country team had a new head coach. Jim Freeman, one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of Washington State cross country, retired after the 1997 season. Taking his place is one of his former athletes, Dominic Urbano. A 1985 graduate of Mt. Baker, Coach Urbano competed for Central Washington University for four years where he earned All-American honors in Track. He also acted as the assistant cross country coach at Central for two years. Most recently Mr. Urbano was the head coach for Naselle High School in Southwest Washington where his athletes made made four straight appearances in the state championship meet. In addition to being hired as the head cross country coach, Urbano will take on the head coaching duties for track and is teaching social studies in the high school.