by Paris Lopez | staff writer

Cross country is leading the pack by preparing properly to stay on top as district approaches.

“We’ve been top part of all meets and we have a couple kids that are running really well and been beating some of the top kids in the city and just trying to prepare for districts,” head coach Nancy Almaraz said.

The success may be coming as a result of an overall closer team, promoting both friendship and dedication to the sport.

“This season we are definitely a lot closer than we have been in the past, just hanging out outside of practice and outside of our meets so that’s really helped

us connect better and to know when one person is struggling that we need to pick it up and to make sure that you’re going faster to better the team,” Dominique Lavigne said.

As districts get closer, the team is focusing in on what they need to do to succeed.

“We’re focusing on beating reagan that’s always our main focus, we just want to improve on our times and work together better as a team and make sure that all of our times are pretty close together,” Lavigne said.

By switching up their workouts and training, the team is able to improve holistically as athletes.

“Every workout is always different, we go from different workouts, just to our long runs and we have our strength and conditioning core, we also do pool workouts once a week. Tuesday afternoon we do a pool medicine ball core workout, we’ve tried to hit all areas of our training, we even do different team stretches,” Almaraz said.

Enjoying the season, as well as each other, the team continues to bond.

“When we go out together, it maybe an unplanned event but it turns into a team event and i really like the unity that it causes and we’re all like a family,” Bethany Mencke said.