Heading into the new season, the cross country team is running faster than ever. These athletes have been training all summer so they can put their best foot forward at the meets.  At the Bronco Invitational meet they had a great start to the season, with the boys team winning first place, and the girls placing second.

Junior Mackenzie Juza is a top runner and got a time of 13:13 at the meet. My goal for this season is to be racing low 19 minute times, and for my team to be in the top eight at state,” sophomore Mackenzie Juza said. 

The first two meets of the season are only two miles to get everyone used to racing again. The rest of the meets are around 3 miles to 5k, depending on the course. 

Senior Tessa Buswell has been in cross country since sixth grade and hopes to win state again this year. “My goal for the meet was to run faster than my time last year, which was 11:37. I did meet that goal and ran 11:30 and got 12th place at the Bronco meet,” senior Tessa Buswell said.

Every meet is broken up into multiple races: freshman girls, JV girls, varsity girls, freshman boys, and so on. Cross country is a team sport so the first five people on the team to finish have their places totalled up for a score, and the team with the lowest score wins.

“My goal for this race was below a 17 minute three mile and I have never really worked hard at practice, but recently I have been and the effort has shown because I got a 16:58.” The Bronco Roundup at Kit Carson was only the second meet of the season. By the end of the season they will have raced at about 15 meets.

“My goal for this year is to get a 16:20 three mile and try to go to Mt. SAC iInvite because it is one of the biggest meets in the season because you have to be top seven,” Marshall said.