Many people feel running cross country is the perfect mix of pleasure and pain. As Coach Steven Muñoz puts it, during races and practices his runners put their bodies through a lot and they need to develop not just stamina, but mental toughness. A four year runner, senior Daniel Gutierrez points out, “Your mind keeps telling you to quit and you have to keep telling it to go; it’s like an internal battle.”

One of the main things Munoz and his assistant coaches, Liu Ibarra and Eric Dixon, will work with the athletes on, are hills. As Munoz puts it, “Everyone hates running hills except for Alisal”. They make the athletes understand their philosophy that “hills are our friends.” Munoz said that once the athletes understand this they will be stronger during the races. Another thing that makes the athletes stronger during races is running together. “When you’re running as a team, it helps you move faster,” he said.

According to Muñoz, a good cross country team consists of a group of student athletes who work together as a team and train hard as a team every day. He has great expectations for his athletes, and he believes that both varsity boys and girls will qualify for CCS.

He expects the girls to finish in top 3. Even with last season top runners, Jocelyne Ruiz and Maria Rodriguez, having graduated, he believes that the varsity girls will still be strong and better than they were last year. Munoz feels this way because several returning girls were on varsity last year. Liliana Garduno and Elizabeth Hernandez are this year top runners and returning girls and Munoz expects them to perform well this year.   Last year they didn’t have experience, but they stepped it up, which is why they won City Championships and were 3rd in the League Championships. Munoz feels that, “There will be lots of competition for the 7 spots on the girls’ varsity team,” he said. And for those girls who don’t make it to the varsity team, will make the JV and freshmen teams stronger.

As for the boys, Munoz expects both Varsity and JV to finish in top 4. Last year Arturo Rivera, was the front runner and the returning boys were the “middle of the pack” as Munoz put it. Munoz thinks that this year varsity team will be strong because last year they were young and inexperienced, but now they are coming back with experience. Munoz expects Daniel Gutierrez and Jaime Mendoza to be the top runners for this season. As for the JV and Frosh, Muñoz said that if the varsity team is strong then the JV and frosh teams will also be strong.

On September 6, the team had their first invitational meet at Toro Park, the Early Bird Invitational. The meet was set up by grades and gender, but it gave Munoz an idea of who can occupy the seven varsity spots. For the boys, Daniel Gutierrez finished with a time of 18:30, Jaime Mendoza at 18:43, Andrew Martinez at 18:54, Alex Mitra at 19:02, Gregorio Corona at 19:36, Imanol Talzintan at 19:37, and Jesse Diaz at 19:38. For the girls,  Lilian Garduno at 22:36, Delia Estrada at 23:04, Elizabeth Hernandez at 23:42, Carina Avelar at 24:02, Alondra Rodriguez at 24:32, Esmeralda Espinoza at 24:36, and Elizabeth Gonzalez at 25:19.