Cross Country’s Run to Victory

Cross Country is halfway through its season, with races nearly every Friday in which they compete against a wide variety of schools, both individually and as a team. This year’s group is composed of Alexander Fernández, Bianca Montañez, Daniela Alejandro, Victoria Pacwa and Irene Cabán in the juvenile team,  Jonathan Fernández, Arturo Ortiz, and Alfonso Lastra in the JV team,  and in the varsity team Annalee Herger, Paola Casal, Diana Rodríguez, Sofían Torres, Adriana Rivas, Mariana Pacheco, Paolo Cintron, Pablo Caban, Augusto Perez, Alejandro Delbrey, Julian Cardona, Julian Vigil, Jorge Toro, David San Miguel, Javier López, Angel Surface, and Héctor Santiago. This year’s cross-country team is doing particularly well and is on its way to an extremely successful season. Below are interviews with a few of the members regarding the sport and the team.

Interviews:

Questions:

1. How much do you run in a race and how have you done in the past few races?

2. What is your favorite thing about cross-country?

3. How does cross-country compare to other sports?

4. How do you prepare for a race?

5. How is this year’s team?

6. Even though cross-country is a team sport you still compete individually. How does that affect the team dynamic?

Alexander Fernández (7th grade)

1. 1 mile. I’ve done…pretty well. Before this season I was running the mile in 7:30 min and now I run it in 7 min.

2. My favorite thing is seeing the finish line and everyone running at the end of the race.

3. All the running helps me stay fit, it helps me move more, it helps me stay accurate.

4. I first stretch with my coach and my teammates. Then I run a lap. And then I just go and wait.

5. Well it’s only me this year in the juvenile team, but I do get along with the kids that are older than me.

6. N/A

Victoria Pacwa (7th grade)

1. I am in juvenile so I run 1 mile. Oh well…I think I’ve done well. We have been training a lot.

2. I like to run long distances more than sprinting so it is much more fun. Also you get to meet a lot of new people who also like to run.

3. Cross –country is a lot harder because other sports like soccer for example you can stay there for a few moments and rest. You really have to train to be good at cross-country.

4. I run all the time and do many exercises. I stretch a lot because if you don’t you can get an injury.

5. In the team we get along with everybody because we help each other. Even though I am smaller and from the juvenile team I can still help other people and we all get along really well.

6. N/A

Alfredo Ortiz (9th grade)

1. 2 miles. Good.

2. Winning. (laughs)

3. You have to practice more for cross-country and it is individual while all the other sports that I do are team sports.

4. To prepare for a race I eat well and sleep well.

5. Yea. We are good this year. We are doing very well.

6. Well everybody wants to do well individually and when everybody does well the team does well.

Alfonso Lastra (10th grade)

1. 2 miles. My first year it went well. This year, the first competition wasn’t very good, but the last one went really well.

2. I really don’t like cross-country very much. I do it because I’m good at it and the running is good exercise. Honestly, I like track and field better.

3. N/A

4. The day of the test a make sure to eat well and warm up.

5. We all get along really well.

6. We all help each other. The scoring is based on how your team does as a whole so every member's performance is important.

Mariana Pacheco (10th grade)

1. 2 miles. Pretty good I guess. I usually finish between the first fifty competitors.

2. I think…the team.

3. N/A

4. We practice Monday through Wednesday. We never run the way. The day of the race you have to eat well, hydrate well, stretch, and do exercises.

5. We [the team] are our own family…you know we always support each other. Before the races the whole team calms each other down and we give each other advice; really just try to relax. We are in a comfortable zone. I guess that helps.

6. When you run, the competition is against yourself so you don’t really feel that you are running against your teammates. You are running for yourself.

Pablo Cabán (11th grade)

1. 3 miles. I have done pretty well.

2. It’s [cross-country] a great way to gain resistance. It's quite fun like the people that we run with are pretty chill. No one is out to kill anybody…although yes it is pretty competitive.

3. I don’t do other sports.

4. I go to my practices where we run and do other exercises. Right before a race I do walking drills, running drills, and I stretch.

5. Really good. They are all cool.

6. We all motivate each other. If you are running alongside a teammate the pressures on you are encouraged to keep up with your partner.

Paola Casal (12th grade)

1. I’m on the varsity team so we run 2 miles. And the whole team has been doing pretty good actually. As for me I’m happy because I’ve been improving my time in each race and I think that that’s basically the point of cross country: to try to be better than you were the day before.

2. The coach, the training, and definitely the feeling of accomplishment that you get after a race is pretty great. Yeah everything except for the actual race because that is just painful.

3. Running is a very mental sport. It requires a lot more mental focus and strength. Essentially our sport is your sport's punishment.

4. Sleep and I try not to think about it too much because if not I get nervous.

5. We [the team] are running nicely.

6. We don’t necessarily need a full team to compete in each race but I think it’s definitely necessary for keeping your mental sanity. When we run together we encourage each other to do better. When one of us is off or tired then we count on each other for motivation.

#sports