Archives > Maricopa Monitor > Sports
CROSS COUNTRY - Runnin' down a dream
Girls using fall runs to prepare for spring sprints
By ERIC MUNGENAST
Staff Writer
Published:
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Eric Mungenast/Maricopa Monitor, Maricopa High School girls’ cross country team members Sandiin Mitchell, left, and Angie Martinez, far right, are using the fall distance runs to prepare for track events in the spring. The pair have been the top female runners for Maricopa this year.
Juniors Sandiin Mitchell and Angie Martinez and freshman Chelsea Grosse now want to help their teammates cross that metaphoric finish line with a bang.
All three girls joined the team to help their performances for track this spring, particularly to improve their stamina for the 800-meter run, but have come to appreciate, if not enjoy, the sport.
Mitchell, in her second year with the team, has posted the top times for the girls this season, with several top five finishes in meets this season.
Martinez, who is in her first year on the team, has posted top ten finishes throughout the season, usually finishing just behind Mitchell, and said she has put in large amounts of effort and seriousness to better her times each week.
“It’s like a growing dream, I guess,” Martinez said. “It fuels me to be a better runner.”
While Mitchell and Martinez have steadily improved throughout the season, it has been Grosse who has shown the most dramatic reduction in her times. Since posting a time of 29:45 in a meet in early September, she has sliced off valuable minutes from her time and posted a 24:45 run at the team’s last home meet on Sept. 30, finishing fourth overall and just 20 seconds behind Mitchell.
Grosse attributes her improvement to practice and building up her stamina, as she said she could barely run a half-mile at the beginning of the season, as well as help from Martinez and Mitchell with her pace and her stride, among other techniques.
“It was a lot of tips in the beginning for me,” Grosse said.
And the addition of Grosse’s improved performance also helps to push Mitchell and Martinez, who both want to improve their times.
“It’s very nice,” Mitchell said. “It makes it much easier at times. Either they push you or you push them.”
It wasn’t until Grosse proved she was a reliable runner that the team was able to field the requisite five runners needed to place in a meet, a problem that head coach Duane Anderson said happened frequently last year.
Even with the elation of now having a full team, which Martinez said caused her and the other runners to “jump for joy,” the lack of meet results from week to week had wasted the previous performances of Mitchell, Martinez and the other female runners who competed.
“It is frustrating, especially when you know there are a lot of people in your school who could run, but don’t want to,” Martinez said.
As for the rest of the season, all three runners would like to qualify for the state championship, with Mitchell hoping to get her time down into the 20-minute area.
But the end of the season will be bittersweet for Martinez and the other runners, even if the team does well at the state championship.
“It’s sad to know cross country is almost over,” she said. “It’s like a small family.”
Article Rating (4 * = highest)
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of TriValley Central or any of its publications.