The cross country team will compete at the McNeil Invitational Sept. 22-23 at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock at 7:30 a.m.
Last season, the boys and girls teams both ended in third place in the district, earning a spot in the regional championships. Graduate Srija Venna made it to the state championships.
This year’s cross country season started July 31 and the team has competed in four meets so far, with two left until districts.
“Our last season was very good,” head coach Chance Edwards said. “[Our] initial invitational [was] our home meet, [and] we’re not usually as sharp [or] ready yet. We look OK here and there, but it takes some time. As we’ve gone along, we’ve brought things together [and] we’re definitely clicking more now.”
Edwards said the team did not alter much regarding their physical training, aside from younger runners requiring a higher volume of training and workouts. The focus for this season has been on mentally training the team. This includes how the team views an upcoming race, managing stress and getting team members to build positive mental imagery leading up to races.
“Running is big on your mindset,” senior Hannah Delay said. “[Even though] we all run the same amount, it’s really based on who can push through the negative thoughts and keep a good mindset that you’re mentally ready. It can be hard sometimes, but [we] just try to keep positive and encourage each other.”
Last season was Edwards’ first year coaching the team. He said the biggest change with the program this year has been the team itself as it’s “a very young team on both sides.” Roughly 85% of the girls team is freshmen and sophomores, and about 75% of the boys team.
“Our team culture [has been] really good,” junior Elijiah Rivera-Campos said. “We’ve been working on it since the beginning of summer. [We’ve] just been trying to build our team since we have a younger team. As the top runner, [I have] to motivate the team and bring them together. It was challenging at first to see how things were going to go, but now we’ve learned how our team runs and how we bond together.”
Edwards said he hopes to get at least one team out of the district meet to regionals. As for his own goals as a coach, he said he would like to make it a yearly standard to send an individual runner to the state championships. Rivera-Campos has a chance at making it to state, as he is in the top 20 in 6A.
“[This weekend’s invitational] is going to be exciting,” Rivera-Campos said. “[I’ll] get a good visualization, just in case I’m making it to state in the future. But it’s going to be [challenging] — all the top and fast runners in Texas are going to be there, so hopefully we [will win] there.”
