As sports have changed throughout the years, so have the families that participate in them. The Houghton family, with Jessie, freshman, Kristie, junior, Stephanie sophomore at University of Illinois, and Cassie junior at St. Louis University, have all participated in cross country in their middle school and high school years. Combined, the Houghton’s have 23 years of cross country and 14 state qualifications.

“I think it started when Cassie, my oldest sister, was still running at St. Francis, where I tagged along to most of the meets as a second grader,” Jessie said.

Cassie found her inspiration for cross country and track from the sport of soccer where she was a midfielder.

“[It was] a position that involves a lot of running so when my friends decided to join the cross country and track team I decided to try it as well,” Cassie said.

After Cassie joined the middle school and high school teams, she and her family realized that not only was she naturally talented at running, but how fun and inspiring the team was.

“Running really spread throughout my family, starting with Cassie, when she placed at state for both cross country and track in middle school. Because she was so naturally talented, I think my parents thought that the rest of us would be good at running also,” Kristie said. “Going into high school, however, the rest of us, Stephanie, Jessie, and I, decided to focus on running and follow in Cassie’s footsteps, not only because we thought we would be good at running too, but also because we wanted to be a part of the awesome group of girls,” Kristie said.

Stephanie loves to hear about her sisters’ results when she comes back and visits from college. Since she has graduated, the team has become more and more competitive, according to Stephanie.

“Even though I obviously am not directly competing with my younger sisters, it’s natural that we would be compared in terms of how I was performing at their age. For the most part I fully support my siblings and want them to be their best and succeed, but on the other hand there is a small part of me that is a little competitive and gets jealous when they beat my times. To be completely honest though I’d rather have them beating my times than another girl,” Stephanie said.

The sport itself has progressed as the Houghton’s have progressed as a family with the sport. All sisters have experienced Ian Silverman, English teacher, as head coach, but have experienced different assistant coaches such as Nicole Collins, Chemistry teacher, and Lisa Ledbetter, French teacher.

Overall, running has helped the Houghton’s to grow together as a family and fuel their passion for cross country. Each sister leaving her own mark on the sport is what Stephanie likes best. However, the separation of their ages brings both advantages and disadvantages to the sport.

“Sometimes I wish that we had all run together on the same middle school team, because our St. Francis teams were very small and, as teammates, we would have really pushed each other to become better,” Kristie said. “I am glad, however, that all of us did not run on the same high school team, because that way our individual accomplishments were not overshadowed by each other’s success. Also, I do not think Silverman could have handled all four Houghtons at once.”