Cross country comes out of the gate running

After a summer of diligent practice and preparation, Samo cross country aims for new heights. Training began in July, when Coach Tania Fischer took the varsity team to Mammoth for a boot camp, where they ran twice a day. Cross country opened the season on Aug. 31, in a two mile dual meet against Redondo at Entrada Park. They quickly followed this with a participation in the Cool Breeze Invitational in Pasadena on Sept. 8. "[Cool Breeze] was kind of a test, to see where we were at," Fischer said.On Sept. 15 and 16, cross country took part in the Woodbridge Invitational at the Silverlake Sports Complex, one of the biggest cross country invitationals in California. The event featured around 10,000 participating athletes and spanned two days. At Woodbridge, Samo runners Anya Sturm (’18) and Tupelo Sullivan (’20) were chosen to participate in the Sweepstakes on the second day, a three mile race for which only a select few qualify."You have to be invited; you have to qualify. It's the best in California, basically," said Fischer. "We had a really good showing at Woodbridge."Sturm ran 17:07.3, and Sullivan ran 17:50.3, placing 35th and 70th respectively out of the 162 runners in the Sweepstakes. Senior captain Daniel Cohen ('18) ran 15:01.2, placing in the top 100 runners in the entire invitational. "Cross country is a lot of pain, but the community and the fun of running outweigh the moments of pain," Sullivan said. Cross country had their first league meet on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at Rancho Park against El Segundo and will be sending runners to Hole in the Wall invitational in Lakewood, Washington on Oct. 7.