The Arcadia High School (AHS) Cross Country team competed in their first race at the La Serna Lancer Invitational on Sep. 11 at La Serna High School. It was a great experience for everyone, with the AHS Cross Country Team starting off strong.

Due to the pandemic, many sports training were called off during the previous school year, making it harder for team sports like cross country to train together. However, members of the Cross Country team have been able to get in a good amount of practice throughout last summer, working as a team to improve. Under the coaching of Coach Chris Lee for the Boys Cross Country team and Coach Jacques Sallberg for the Girls Cross Country team, the runners were able to get back into the swing of things.

“Over the summer, [the team has] kind of developed a more serious attitude towards running and [Coach Jacques has] really encouraged us to do our best and believe that we can,” said Girls Cross Country Team Captain senior Grace Lee.

However, starting to run again has not always been easy for the team.

“With that said, running with school starting in person again after almost two years has been a tiring transition, but after the summer, we’ve gotten used to the physical toll, and we got a lot closer as a team, so adding school on top of everything definitely wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been,” she added.

As for the race, the day started early for the runners. Everyone met up at school on a dim Saturday morning and was ready to take off on the school bus at 6 a.m.

Both the Boys and Girls teams were split up into Varsity, JV, and Frosh/Soph teams. The race was tough for everyone, as each individual runner faced their own struggles, but the runners, coaches, and parents all pushed through the heat. Overall, the race was a great one to start off with for all the runners.

Lee also reflected on the race: “Now that we’ve run our first race of the season, I think we’re not only going to improve in terms of ability, but also motivation and mental strength. A lot of us had a good first race, so I’m really excited to see what we’ll do with the rest of the season, which we’ll see at league finals in November.”

Coach Sallberg mentioned, “There wasn’t one runner that did bad, and everyone did a great job here.”

As for highlights of the meet, the Boys Varsity team took first place, with a total score of 27 from the top five runners. Girls Frosh/Soph was the runner-up in their division, winning second place with a combined score of 88. The Boys Frosh/Soph also placed second, with a score of 60. Last but not least, the Boys JV team took a very close second place, just behind La Serna with a one-point difference, coming out to a score of 28.

The La Serna Invitational was overall a great experience for the coaches, runners, and parents. Hopefully, it will be the start for an amazing season to look forward to.

Photo courtesy of Sophia Li