RUN ‘TIL YA DROP: Purtill can be seen running everyday with a smile. Photo courtesy of Leigh Adelizzi ’15

Dee Barlee ’16, Christian Feliziani ’16: Caroline Purtill class of ’14 is this month’s girls’ athlete of the month for her excellence in cross-country. Purtill started running cross country in the seventh grade and loved it ever since. “My amazing teammates and coaches have taught me to love the sport of cross country.” She gives all of the credit to her coaches and teammates. “[My teammates] positive, friendly, and funny personalities make practices and even races fun. Although cross country is a difficult sport that requires a great deal of endurance, everyone on our team pushes herself to run her hardest and motivates one another to do her best as well.” Purtill heavily relays on her coaches and elders to stimulate her, “My cross country role models have been my coaches and past captains. Few other sports’ coaches complete their athletes’ workouts with them whereas Ms. Smith and Rev. Gavin run our practices with us, generally adding on a few more miles beforehand or afterwards.” They lead by example and their goofy senses of humor always make practices light and fun” A testament to her endurance was running ten plus miles. “The farthest I’ve ever run was probably a little over ten miles.” She later on in her life wants to run a marathon. October first EA girls cross country had a match with Agnes Irwin and Purtill was pivotal runner during the race. During the interview when asked about being the player of the month she was truly honored, to her coaches Caroline always came to practice with a hundred percent and a smile on her face. Her response was simply, “It’s such an honor to be player of the month!”