Every year, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School girl’s cross country team honors a few students with the title of team captain. The title of captain is elected by the Coaches and Teammates, and is given to one of the seniors or the fastest runners. This year, the captains are seniors Devyn Sanders and Gabrielle Fisher.

Sanders has been running cross country at MSD since her freshman year but has been interested in running since she was a kid. One of her favorite memories as a kid was running a mile in six minutes.

“I love running, it helps me release stress and it allows me to be alone with my thoughts,” Sanders said.

Sanders has a personal goal to beat her fastest time and improve after every run, but at the same time, she puts her teammates first. She does so by sacrificing her own time to help them become better alongside her.

Sanders’s fastest time was in a race on Saturday, Sept 18, where she finished in 21 minutes. With the work she has been putting in every practice, she is projected to run under 20 minutes by the end of October.

Over her four seasons of cross country, Sanders has gone to several meets and earned a total of 20 ribbons. Recently on Wednesday, Sept. 9, she received first place in a race, adding to her collection.

After high school, Sanders hopes to run at the collegiate level. She is interested in Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of Tampa.

Leading alongside Sanders is fellow senior Gabrielle Fisher. She joined the team her sophomore year and has been running ever since. This season marks her first year as a captain.

Fisher did not start her athletic career as a runner, but as a lacrosse player. She stopped playing, but she wanted to continue being active, so she tried cross country and decided to focus on it instead.

Fisher doesn’t plan on running cross country in the future but plans to continue running for herself.

As a runner, Fisher’s personal record is 26 minutes, but she hopes to bring it down to 23. She has experienced many setbacks in her training. Over the summer she had surgery for an injury she suffered while running and was not able to run for a while. Since then she had gone through a shin injury, but quickly bounced back and is now training like normal.

She has gained a few material achievements, but says her mentality as a runner has improved over the years.

“I am mostly proud of the mentality I’ve gained as a runner,” Fisher said. “I have grown mentally in order to motivate myself for runs and practices.”

Both Sanders and Fisher work hard at their craft and put their team above themselves. This season, they hope to improve both individually as runners and as a team.