Even though they have been teammates of the Wellsville-Middletown cross country team since seventh grade, Jonah Slovensky and Gage Marshall have known each other a lot longer than that.

They have been best friends since they were 2 years old.

“Gage’s mom looked after me when my parents were working,” Slovensky said. “Ever since then, we’ve been hanging out.”

Slovensky and Marshall are looking to end their high school cross country careers with a trip to the Class 1 state meet at Columbia together.

“That will be awesome,” Marshall said.

Marshall and Slovensky are leading a W-M boys team that has just four runners. The other competitors are sophomore Shane Joles and junior Zackery Vogel.

The seniors’ high school cross country careers are coming down to the final month. W-M has four regular season meets remaining before its postseason begins on Nov. 2 at the Class 1 district meet in Fulton.

“I really don’t want the season to end,” Slovensky said.

Both Slovensky and Marshall have been valuable members of the W-M cross country program since they joined it in junior high. Slovensky earned numerous medals and was a member of the W-M high school team that placed third in the Class 1 state meet in his freshman year.

Marshall, a two-time all-state performer in the high jump, had several strong performances, including a seventh-place finish at the Clopton Hamburger Meet last year.

Slovensky said he was thrilled to be part of the third-place team in the 2021 season. It was the first time a W-M boys cross country team placed at state.

“I had no idea I would get that chance,” said Slovensky, who finished 137th with a 20:14 at state. “I was just delighted to be there. I was so happy that I could spend that opportunity with my team.”

When Marshall and Slovensky were eighth-grade students, they helped the W-M junior high team win a team championship at the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational.

Marshall said he fell in love with cross country when he first started it in junior high.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “There were a lot of good older people who made it a really good time.”

Marshall and Slovensky earned medals at the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational on Sept. 25. Marshall placed sixth with a career-best time of 19:53 and Slovensky came in eighth with a 20:26 in their final home cross country meet. They were honored with their parents after the race.

“It’s weird that it will be the last time I’ll run here and it will be the last time I will compete for the W-M team,” said Marshall, who plans to attend State Fair Community College in the 2025-26 school year.