Cross Country
By William Holz and Jonah Angelo-David
The cross-country team finished its season strong with three athletes, sophomores Grace Eberhart and Adam Akins and freshman Derek Taylor, making it to the championships on April 2.
Coach Joe Hartman is very proud of his team
“Overall, given the trying circumstances of a COVID-19 year, our season went nearly as well as could be expected,” Hartman said.
“Hopefully fall 2021 will be a more normal season with better preparation, bigger meets and the possibility of full five-person teams. With the removal of distractions and restrictions and the anticipated influx of some tremendous talent, fall 2021 may turn out to be a banner year.”
Although the team performed especially well given the circumstances, the runners expressed their concerns on the size of the team.
“I think for this year I did ok, especially since this year was cut short. But it’s hard to say because in my previous race, I was racing against all guys since I’m the only girl on the team,” Eberhart said.
Freshman Orlando Ponce Blas said one of the biggest issues with the team was its size.
“We had overall good times, and we could have won some races if the team was bigger. Even if all of us came in first, we would lose to a bigger team simply because it was bigger,” Ponce Blas said.
Hartman is looking forward to the next season.
“Hopefully we can return to pre-COVID settings, and the students can enjoy the benefits of training and racing for an extended period of time and really feel good about their accomplishments,” Hartman said
“There are several newcomers in the fall of 2021 who should give the program a huge boost and allow us to compete on a team level with not only the schools in our league but also the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 5 as well,” he said.
Akins also has high expectations for next season.
“Practice was limited and competition was strange, but we all improved greatly,” said Akins said. “I’m looking forward to a normalized and better season next year.”
