Head coach Marco Anzures will get a sense on how the cross country team will operate during their first meet on Friday at the Palomar Invitational and build off of that throughout the season.
“We’ll get a sense on how the team will do,” he said. “The first meet we don’t know how everybody is going to race.”
Men and women’s cross country looks to continue successful seasons as the men’s team placed second at the Southern Calfornia Championships last year, and the women’s team placed in sixth at the State Championships.
“The team is going to do very well. Everyone is excited about the season,” Anzures said. “The team was very successful last year.”
Especially the returners, they want to do well,” he added.
Cross country director Christopher Richardson pointed out that both teams are young and a majority of the runners consist of freshman.
“We’re surprisingly young,” he said. “A majority of the runners are freshman, and that’s a good thing because they’re fresh legs and very talented.”
Richardson believes that the team is ready, however, he thinks that the runners will have to adjust to working together and leading each other toward success.
“They are learning how to be leaders,” Richardson said. “They’re learning and developing their personalities and coming together as a cohesive group.”
In high school, you’re together all four years. Here, you have kids coming in from different schools. They might be used to competing against each other, but never working together; so, trying to create that team culture right away is difficult,” Richardson continued.
Anzures echoed Richardson’s concern as he is looking to improve team chemistry everyday.
“We’re just working on the things we have to do to be successful as a team when it counts the most.”
Richardson knows that the team has the talent to be as successful as Anzures wants them to be, however the team has to operate as one, as opposed to individually.
“Talent is one thing, but you need that team atmosphere for cross country,” he said. “If we don’t have that team component, we’re not going to be as successful as we want to be.”
As an athlete, you want to win every race, so managing those young ambitions is going to be the big thing for Friday,” Anzures added.
The first meet is Friday at 9:30 a.m.
