Cross country runners Henry Wynn and Danny Conlisk are runners without a team — sort of.

Coupeville High School does not have an official cross country team, but that didn’t stop the pair of Wolves from taking part in the sport this fall.

Wynn, a junior, and Conlisk, a sophomore, train with the South Whidbey High School team and follow the Falcons’ meet schedule, but they wear Coupeville jerseys in the meets. South Whidbey is a member of the Cascade Conference and Coupeville belongs to the Olympic League, so during the post season, Wynn and Conlisk will split from South Whidbey and shift to the Olympic League.

Conlisk said he decided to give cross country a try to get ready for track.

“I want to get a better time in the 800 and hopefully win a state championship. If not this spring, the year after,” he said.

Conlisk won the district 800 title last spring as a freshman to qualify for the state meet. He and Wynn were also on the district winning 4×400 relay team. At state, Conlisk finished 17th in the 800, and the relay team took 15th.

Wynn, too, originally tried the sport to improve his track times, but his focus changed once the season began.

“I really enjoy it now, and it is not just something to do before track,” he said. “I really love sports and this is a way of doing a sport in the fall.

“The cool thing about the sport is you don’t have to be the fastest person; even the slowest person can be beneficial to the team (when it comes to scoring in the meets).”

Conlisk isn’t so sure he likes the sport: “I’m more of middle distance person.”

The whole idea of running cross country was “half coach (Randy) King’s idea and half ours,” Wynn said.

King, the Coupeville track coach, suggested after last track season that the runners consider it.

The two tried to get other Coupeville athletes to join them but didn’t have any luck.

“To a lot of people, this is not an enjoyable sport,” Wynn said. “Several people were interested but not enough to be part of it this year — maybe next year.”

“We are both introverts, so we don’t need a lot of people around,” Conlisk said.

Practicing with South Whidbey has its plusses and minuses, they said.

“We have to travel 30 minutes down and back,” Wynn said.

“Most of the time we are late,” Conlisk added. “We have to run out to the trials and find them.”

On the positive side, “coach (Doug) Fulton has taken us in and helped so much,” Wynn said.

Joining forces with South Whidbey, Coupeville’s biggest athletic rival, hasn’t been a problem, they said.

“It’s hard to consider them rivals,” Wynn said.

“I guess you could call us frenemies,” Conlisk added.

The Wolves have competed in two meets this spring. Wynn was 70th and Conlisk 71st out of 94 at the Carl Westling Invitational in Langley Saturday, Sept. 17, and Wynn took 63rd and Conlisk 101 in a field of 214 at the Bellevue Cross Country Invitational in Samammish Saturday, Sept. 24.

The goal for this year, Wynn said, is to qualify for state.

“A goal for the future,” he said, “is to get enough people so we can have our own team.”