Our cross country team’s last meet will be at the CIF State Cross Country Championship on November 12 at Morley Field. The girls’ team runs at 9:05 AM and the boys run at 10:10 AM.

Our cross country team’s first meet of the season was on September 8th and they have been practicing since August to fully prepare for CIF competitions. The cross country team practices after school every day at UCSD or the beach.

“Yesterday we went to the hospital near here and we did hills and we walked up and down the hills about, eight or nine times,” said Thomas Lam (‘25) “I feel prepared but I really hate hills.”

Our team is competing against many kinds of high schools in San Diego, including [other high schools at the meet]. In order to compete in CIFSDS (California Interscholastic Federation; San Diego Section), one of the requirements is having ran in five league meets, meaning not all of our team members can go to CIF. Although only a small number of our members will be attending, their teammates will vehemently cheer them on.

“It’s really intimidating because one, you’re running with a larger group, but it’s also really intimidating because it’s our final meet of the season so you obviously want to perform well,” says Sabrina Haji (‘25).

Only ten members from our team are allowed to run: five from the girls’ team and five from the boys’ team. The team members that will be running CIF are Sabrina Haji, Valerie Colin, Tanya Aguilera, Ellery Juarez, and Katherine Aparicio. As for the boys’ team Christian Juarez, King Sharp, Thomas Lam, Christian Montalvo, And Daniel Leon will be going as well.

“There’s a lot of teams at CIF but I think we will do really well regardless,” says Haji (‘25)

Our team has participated in six league meets so far. Their last league meet is on November 3rd at NTC park. We have a lot of faith in our cross country team and hope for the best. Whether or not they win, we will be very proud of them.