Moon Area High School cross country runners vied against district alumni Saturday morning at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart high school. 

Participants from the district's past and present teams followed a 3.1-mile course through rolling hills and chest-high grass in a field behind the high school campus on Woodcrest Drive. The event, which has become a team tradition, marks the beginning of the cross country fall season. 

Freshman runner Isabella Marsh said the hardest part of the race was, "the heat and all the hills with the heat." 

"I felt fine," said Samantha Howard, a 2004 Moon area alumna. "I just like coming back. The course [at OLSH] is harder than what the Moon teams are used to. This is a hard course." 

Current team members said they were eager to take on the alumni runners -- the oldest runner at the race graduated from Moon Area High School in 1978.

"Today is the start of the season," said junior Tyler Willson. "We'll see where we stand and how we match up against older years." 

Spectators rooted on runners throughout the course. Coach Larry Covelli paced the field, cheering on runners as they neared the finish line. 

"It's a lot of fun," said Craig Huffman, a 1986 Moon Area High School graduate. "It's good to come back to the high school and seeing it grow and seeing the athletics. It's so important to the community."