Tracy High’s cross country team hopes to end its 2015 season in glory. Although they did not place first, instead they placed third, at first center meet on Sept. 9, at Oak Grove Park in Stockton, they hope to persevere and improve.

At their next center meet at Eagal Lakes, the only home meet, on Sept. 23, they placed second, so the team is confident that they can bounce back in the future.

In order to prepare for this upcoming season, runners train after school and on weekends to perfect their running strategies.  These workouts vary in length and locations, some occurring at school and some at various locations around Tracy.

“We do track workouts and long distance workouts, usually we run long routes around Tracy,” Sonia Reddy, senior, said.

These training sessions help athletes train for the upcoming events. At these meets these athletes follow a strict routine.

“The freshman/sophomore event is a two-mile race and the varsity runners run a three-mile race,” Melissa McDonald, senior, said. “Before our races we go on a warm-up lap, run our races and if we aren’t running we cheer each other on, we end with a cool off lap before heading home.”

Although many of these cross country meets are uniform in style, most runners can agree that the University of the Pacific (UOP) Invitational, in Stockton on Sept.26, has by far been the most anticipated meet of the season.

“The UOP invitational is a favorite meet because the athletes compete on a flat course, so a lot of athletes earn a personal record. This is also the only meet where athletes can show their school spirit by dressing up in tutus and body paint meanwhile running, whereas the usual meets have strict dress code standards,” Coach Melissa McCullough said.

Additionally, these athletes enjoy pursuing this passion, both during the season and during off season, that allows them to develop both mentally and physically.

“I’ve gotten my time down by a minute, yet I am still eager to develop my running strategies to decrease my times even further. Mentally, I have grown into a leadership role because over the years I have worked hard and earned the position of team captain,” Sammy Wong, senior, said.

The runners hope to not only improve individually, but also as a team to defeat their biggest rivals; Lodi. In order to achieve this goal, they have been dedicated to practicing minute running strategies.

“I have definitely improved on my running strategy, and I’ve finally learned how to pace myself,” McDonald said. “I have also developed mental strength and discipline from my four years of experience.”

Although many of these athletes joined cross country in order to remain in shape for other sports, they formed a bittersweet bond with this physically intense sport, both on and off the course.

“Being able to combine my passion for running, meanwhile spending time with friends during my last year of high school is truly remarkable,” Reddy said.

Though many athlete’s personal goals consist of making it to sectionals, not only individually, but as a team, this is not the most prominent goal for the coaches.

“Our goals would be to build off of where we left off last year. Ideally, we would have teams go off to sectionals, but the most important thing to me is to see individual’s progress, even if just by a little bit,” McCullough said. “It’s also extremely rewarding to see the shift in new runners from the beginning of the season when they weren’t used to running such long distances to experienced runners who consider one or two mile runs to be easy.”   

These athletes can be seen in action next at the Bronco Invite at Folsom High School on

Oct. 17, at 9:30 a.m.