This year, the cross country tryouts are scheduled for August 12-17, with about 25 high school students participating. The tryouts take place from 6:20am to around 7am at Pecos Park.

“The tryouts were difficult,” began Sophomore Kori Klein, “but the members of the team helped me with motivation. Everyone is great and very encouraging.”

At the tryouts, students do practices such as rounds around Pecos Park, core workouts, and sprint drills to get their energy flowing. There is also a professional trainer helping out the students. Klein wasn’t the only one who thought the tryouts were hard; Sophomore Noah Shurtliff said the tryouts were pretty crazy and some people even threw up.

Assistant Coach Janet McKinney said, “everyone tried out well, and [we] had a good turnout of people coming.” The co-ed team has had a few female athletes in the past, but with the amount of girls that showed up this year, they are hoping to make a girls’ cross country team in the near future.

“I think it’s going to be a good season,” stated McKinney. She described the upcoming team as having “good potential,” especially due to “some strong runners returning from last year.” New runners will also add more talent to the expanding team. “Everyone is working really hard,” shared McKinney.