San Marcos Cross Country heads to district meet
The San Marcos cross country team feels like a team again.
In the wake of COVID-19, many runners weren’t able to attend practice due to circumstances caused by the pandemic. But now with a full roster at practice again, the team seems to have built a bond.
“I think in the summer, we really built that foundation,” assistant coach Marissa Mendoza said. “They say the way you work in the offseason is the way your season's gonna go, and it's definitely shown. Our numbers were crazy big during the summer. Everyone showed up. They were voluntary, but they were there every day in the summer working just as hard as they are now.”
The Running Rattlers head to their district meet this weekend looking to improve personal records and win races. But more importantly, they want to run as a team.
“Whenever you're out there and you're running for 15-20 minutes with each other in a race and you're really, truly competing, you have to have a lot of trust in your teammates,” head coach Michael Morris said. “This past weekend was an awesome race. We moved some guys up from the JV side to varsity for them to hit under 20 minutes in the 5K's, (which is) kind of a big barrier. And a couple of the guys (sacrificed) their race to help those JV runners. It was really cool to see them running right in front of them saying ‘Come on, stay with me’ literally out loud in the race. They said, ‘You know what? Their race is more important than me, and this team is more important than me at this moment right now.’”
Another factor that pushed the squad this year is the addition of talented freshmen runners. Senior Oliver Rettele feels like the freshmen have particularly pushed the seniors throughout the season. Whether it’s during a race or during practice, seeing the level the freshmen are at motivates the seniors to have an “all gas no brakes” mentality. Because if they don’t, they may find themselves having to play catch up with a first-year in their fourth year.
Like other sports on the San Marcos campus, cross country is looking to build a championship culture and the results will follow. Morris and Mendoza are looking for some specific improvements this weekend to continue to see growth in the program.
“On the girl's side, we have Kareena and Allie , who are both ranked,” Morris said. “Kareena is ranked number two in district and Allie’s ranked eleventh and they have a very good shot at being a top three team overall. So I think getting those two in the top 10 as individual qualifiers to the regional meet and the girls to third place would be a major improvement. Last year we finished in eighth place, so that would mean a huge step forward and it'd be done by a lot of younger kids. And then on the guy's side, we're sitting in sixth or seventh place but the fourth and fifth place is actually only a little bit in front of us. It's only a matter of five to eight seconds per runner in front of us. So for them, (the goal is) to move into the top five position on the guy's side, and then to have Marcus Connor and Mateo placing in the top 15, hopefully in the top 10.”
The District 26-6A cross country meet commences this weekend and the Rattlers are looking to send multiple runners on to Regionals. After a year of growth in the program from getting back together, being pushed by freshmen, and having some golden races mixed in between, it appears that the purple and white are ready for whatever comes their way.
