As the season continues, the Venice cross country team is continuing to work hard in shaping themselves for a good season this year and to  possibly win the city title again. Head Coach Sandoval has been training his runners to help them get ready for their meets. 

 “ I am training the mind, making them strong mentally, training the body, hopefully making them stronger than out opponents and figuratively training the heart,” said Coach Sandoval. “I also give them lectures and tell them about great coaches and runners while also making them do solid workouts. I’m trying to have them believe in themselves and work together as one instead of six or seven separate runners.”

After the varsity boys made it to the state finals last season, the team and their coach is confident in their attempt to make it to state again this year. The boys varsity team placed 23rd in Division II in the state out of approximately 500 cross country school teams.

“ I hope we can make it to state again,” said varsity captain Henry Freedman. “I think we can. We have four runners who are very solid. We are able to hang with each other during workouts and we have a sense of unity in there and I think if our fifth and sixth runners improve, I know no one can take the D2 city championship away from us.” 

As for the girls varsity team, they are also determined to make it to state this year.

“The girls varsity team is trying to make it to state this year, so we’ve been practicing on that and trying to hit our times and what not,” said varsity member Estefania Flores.  

After placing third in the city and not qualifying for state last season, the varsity girls are driven to work extra hard to change that this year. With mile workouts and conditioning on the weekends, and hard workouts and tempo runs on Mondays, the team is conditioning to become the best runners they can pushed to be. 

The Venice cross country team next meet is at Bell Gardens on Oct. 12.