FAIRMONT — For the first time in many years, Fairmont Cardinals cross country mentor Bob Bonk is heading into a season with a lot of questions.

Not about his Cardinal girls runners, who return all nine competitors from the team’s 11th-place finish in last year’s Class A state race, but about all the changes coming to sports this fall.

One of the main questions on everyone’s mind is, “Will there be section or state competitions this fall?”

Bonk is in the same boat as other coaches, waiting to see how it all works out. He’ll get his first look at 9:30 a.m. Thursday when the Cardinals play host to St. James Area and St. Peter on the FHS campus. One area that has ground rules in place centers around fans. They are asked to wear a mask, stay at least 10 yards away from the runners at all times, and stay clear of the finish line area.

The three-team meet will be the first of the Cardinals’ six competitions this year — all triangulars. Two will be at Fairmont — Thursday and Sept. 24, two will be held at Blue Earth — Sept. 3 and Sept. 17, and two will be ran at St. Peter — Sept. 10 and Oct. 1.

Bonk said though the changes might bring issues, what he appreciates least is a lack of direction.

“It’s going to be different to only have a triangular, you know,” Bonk said. “It’s not all bad. I mean, I think sometimes it’s fun for kids to be near the front more than you would be in a huge meet. … We had a time trial, which was supposed to be kind of like a meet and, you know, it did feel a lot different.

“The thing that’s been frustrating for me, I like to plan and I like to kind of know this and that and how we’re going to do things and it’s been hard to get clear direction as to what we’re supposed to do, like when we host a meet.”

Luckily for Bonk, while questions abound about the season as a whole, his Cardinal girls don’t bring many.

For the third consecutive year, the girls are captained by seniors Tabitha Thatcher and Hannah Neusch as well as junior Laura Thompson.

The three captains lead a group of 24 runners: three seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, one freshman, seven eighth-graders and seven seventh-graders.

Thompson returns as the leader on the course, holding the school girls’ 5K record of 18:53 and having placed 23rd in last year’s state race, the second time she made the all-state roster.

Senior captains Tabitha Thatcher and Hannah Neusch finished 118th and 160th at last year’s state race, respectively.

Along with the success of Bonk’s older runners, much of the team’s strength comes from the younger grades.

Eighth-graders Macy Hanson, Carys Gudahl and Ellie Ortega jumped into regular scoring times for the Cardinals last year once they started running varsity races.

Hanson was the standout of the group last season, finishing fourth in the Section 2A Meet and 31st in her first state race.

Carys Gudahl added another top-20 finish for the Cardinals in the Section 2A competition, helping lead to her team’s state appearance.

“We should have a good season. You know, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that,” Bonk said. “The thing with girls is, other teams may do some things like we did last year and all of a sudden come up with varsity seventh-graders that you don’t even know about. So you can’t rest on your laurels, but these are really quality people. They’re not just good runners. And, you know, all nine of the girls that went to state are back and that’s pretty exciting. Laura Thompson and Macy Hanson were one-two for us in the section last year and one-two in school history for 5K times.

“Laura, in particular, looks to me like she’s even at a new higher level so far. I mean, she’s really dedicated herself and Macy is a young girl and, and she’s had a good summer, too. She ran every street in town. That’ll be a terrific one-two punch. And I think Tabitha … she looks like she’s ahead of last year at the same time right now. She was pretty close to Macy in the time trial and then Hannah, nobody works harder than Hannah.”

With the chance of no section or state meets, Bonk might have had to find a new way to motivate his runners for this season, but he said the Cardinal girls are motivating each other and making sure everyone is grateful to be running again.

“It seems to me that the kids aren’t taking it for granted as much as they might normally and they are working as hard as they can right now because you don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna bring,” Bonk said. ” … I don’t see any resting on our laurels. In fact, it’s probably, they’re a little more motivated than ever.”