After conditioning all summer long mixed with vigorous daily workouts, the team is eager to get started. Long-distance runners, moreso, wait in anticipation for the season to begin.

“I just can’t wait for this cross country season,” junior Carlos Rodriguez said.

Coaches Elizabeth Patton and Makai Estioko spend innumerable hours a week to condition the young athletes.  Intensive workouts entail running three miles as a warm-up before jogging a two to five mile route, depending on the runner’s stamina.

“We run so much, by the end of a work out I’m in so much pain,” sophomore Aubrey Hubble said. However, the results are worth it. “My body is amazing and I have the stamina to qualify for states.”

Due to the daily practices and study halls, weekly meets, frequent fundraisers, some would even say that they spend more time with their teammates than with their own families. Runners spend so much time together, “we are like a dysfunctional family,”  Hubble said.