In celebration of their season successes, Mercy’s cross country team held their annual banquet on Sunday Nov. 15. 

Despite the social distancing that everyone practiced, the team still enjoyed their time together. Every senior on the team gave a speech thanking their supporters and coaches, and highlighting their favorite season memories. Various plaques were given, paper plate awards were handed out and many memories were reflected upon.

“The memories from the past four years are something I cherish dearly,” said senior and captain Katie Kim. “I am going to miss the people that I got to see every day for the past four years for the first months of school.” 

A tradition since 1995 has been the passing down of the golden shoes. Every year a senior who was awarded the pair of shoes passes them down to a teammate who they feel encompasses team spirit and leadership. 

Kim received the pair of shoes and box of letters from last year’s senior captain, Gabby Pluszczynski, and has held onto them for a year. 

“[The shoes] are to pass down to someone who shows leadership, and not only shows leadership, but also looks [out] for the new people on the team and is very welcoming to them,” said Kim. “I decided to give them to Stella because it was very clear that she tried to interact with the freshmen. . . she is clearly someone who pushes herself, and I know she’ll push others when we are gone.”