Early success might be one of the biggest pitfalls in sports.

It might happen in the National Football League, where the young quarterback leads his team to the Super Bowl, plays 15 years after that and never reaches the pinnacle again.

Or maybe it's the group of college basketball-playing freshmen, who help take their team to the Final Four and expect to return before they graduate, but never do.

It happens in high school athletics too.

The seniors on the Bishop Chatard girls cross country team can relate.

As freshmen, Amy Davis, Catie Salyer and Maggie Cappel were part of the first Chatard team to ever qualify for the state meet. The Trojans did surprisingly well at the 2003 Franklin Central Semistate and captured the fifth and final qualifying spot to advance to the state meet. They went on to finish 10th that year -- and haven't returned since.

In 2004, the Trojans placed sixth at Franklin Central, which often is considered the toughest of the four semistate sites from which to advance, and slid down to eighth last year.

"I think they were a little shocked by that," said Chatard coach Glenn Arndt. "It was, 'Hey, we qualified as freshmen. We should qualify every year.' "

Arndt believes he has the group this year to make another run to the finals. Chatard has a host of underclassmen pressing the seniors for one of the seven varsity positions, headlined by sophomore Carly Sobolewski and freshman Christine Kirby. Sobolewski finished as the Trojans' No. 1 runner at last year's semistate meet, placing 26th overall.

Chatard opens its season Aug. 23 at the Brebeuf Invitational. Arndt is confident the current combination of runners will again make a push in the postseason tournament.

"They're just a really good, hard-working group of kids," Arndt said. "They're probably the closest unit that I've had in my seven years coaching. Not one of them is afraid of hard work, and they've definitely got some high goals for the season.

"It would be a great story for (the seniors) to finish it off by going back to the state meet. This team has the potential to do some damage at the state level. I think we can finish in the top five."

The seniors are taking nothing for granted this year, said Davis, a Washington Township resident.

"As freshmen, we didn't really know as much," Davis said. "We knew it was a pretty big deal, but being a freshman, I just thought, 'Oh, this will happen every single year.'

"Now that I'm a senior, I just want all the girls on my team to realize it's such a big deal and it's really important to everyone."