Written by Carter Cox (Sports Editor)
The cross country season a little more than a week had their first cross country meet. The team was very excited because this was the first game of sports for a long time. The San Lorenzo Valley cross country team did very well in their first meet of the season and proved that hard work pays off. The team’s time was a lot better than last season. The team felt it was very successful and it gave them hope that they were going to have a good season. The team has many meets to come and most of them are at SLVHS.
First, the players are all very stoked that the season has been happening. They said that it gave them a sense that things were starting to get back to normal. When I asked a cross country runner what it is like being back in sports during a pandemic. They said, “I would say that it is really great to be able to do sports during the pandemic because it feels like it’s the only piece of normal in my everyday life. Being able to see friends and go for a run is just the best feeling. I think my favorite part of the season is that I get to see so many of my friends and even meet new ones and just be able to have that sense of freedom during practices”. It is really refreshing for the runners and especially for the seniors. Many of the seniors were worried that they were not going to be able to have a cross country season earlier in the year. They are so happy to be back running and are happy to see sports happening.
Secondly, the cross country runners have been training since June on their own mostly and they have been training really hard trying to be in condition for the season. Throughout the summer, many of the runners were seeing that they were getting a lot faster because of the hard work that they put in, the team practiced six days a week out of seven days. It was mostly independent training. A lot of credit goes towards the runners for always working hard and never giving up even though they were training in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of credit goes towards the coaches for never giving up on their athletes and pushing them to strive for greatness. The coaches Jay Avenmarg (the boys’ cross country coach) and Rebekah (the girls’ cross country coach) gave a lot of their time to train these athletes so they could be able to do well. A lot of the cross country runners’ favorite things about them is they push them beyond what they think they can in a good way.
Thirdly, in the cross country’s teams’ last meet they faced St. Francis High school at SLVHS. It was an intense fun race for the athletes. The SLVHS cross country runners did very well and ended up exceeding everyone’s expectations. The cross country team also faced their rivals Scotts Valley at Scotts Valley High school where they faced off. The SLVHS cross country team will play Watsonville High School, Aptos High school, and Harbor high school. They have some hard competition ahead of them but last season in the county the Boys cross country team finished in third place out of the six cross country teams in the county. While the girls’ team finished in second place in the county. Both of the teams didn’t make it to state last year but both of the teams had a very successful season last season. The reason why it was so successful was because of the community that they had built. It was a really strong community that they had built which is part of the reason why they were so successful. This year will be limited to the counties only doing meets or games in their county to try to make it safe for athletes. But this is still a worthwhile season to pay attention to. The season finishes on March twenty-sixth and the Track and Field season starts on March first. They are about to start practicing with the first official meet starting on March thirteenth. Many of the athletes were faced with a hard choice of whether they wanted to cross country or track and field. This season you can only do one sport at a time and both seasons happen at nearly the same time. Many were disappointed but they understand that we are in unprecedented times. We are all SLVHS strong don’t forget to support the cross country team even if you can’t see them. They need our support.
The Claw 