Trekking the trails of Santa Monica

Camille De BeusStaff WriterSamo’s cross country program is unique in many ways. The teams train as a program, not individual teams, which helps foster a sense of unity and community.“It’s a good time to socialize,” freshman runner Jonathan Trinh. “Running is good time to relax. We work together to increase our morale, so when it comes to the races we run extremely well.”Cross country is also quite different from the other sports in the school.“It’s one of the only sports in the school that’s co-ed,” captain Eric Gironda said.The runners recognize other positive effects that training as an entire program has.“Because boys and girls run together, we get to feed off each other’s positive energies and encourage eachother to do our best,” Alice Wasserman said.Because everyone runs together, everyone can see who belongs on which team and that the placement is fair.“It’s nice, all running together, because you can fight for those positions,” Gironda said. “Like there’s only seven guys who can run varsity, so you really know who deserves to be there, and it gives people something to work towards”.Cross country is also an extremely fair sport, since it is strictly based on time, and the clock can’t lie.“The thing about cross country, is that you choose teams based on time, so you really know who’s supposed to be on what team,” Gironda said.The general consensus about the team training as a whole is that it’s motivational.“I think it’s great that it’s co-ed because, if you have friends that are guys you can run with them and they’ll push you,” sophomore runner Caitlin Smith said. “If you run with the guys and you’re a girl then you’re going to get a lot faster.”Fischer too believes that the boys and girls running together motivates both genders to do their best.“The girls help the guys, because all of a sudden there’s a girl in the mix and [the guys] are like ‘Oh we gotta push ourselves,’ and of course the girls get a better feel for competition because they’re pushing themselves at a higher level,” Fischer said. “All in all, it’s a team sport. Everyone works together.”Coach Tania Fischer spoke about how her workout plans were different, since the entire program does train as a whole.“I like to usually put people in groups. It works out where they can all run together, however sometimes they can’t because we’re doing a special thing,” Fischer said.Running together is all about similar capabilities. For example, a girl on varsity generally runs about the same pace as a boy on junior varsity.“Obviously varsity boys run together, because they’re at a much higher level,” Fischer said.However, the workout which everyone runs is pretty similar.“They’re doing the same workout but individualized,” Fischer said. “So everyday, there’s the question of what’s the goal of the workout and then where do the people fit in with that workout.”According to Fischer the goal of the workout varies. Some days it requires running more than normal, and some daysCross Country has been doing especially well this year, and the teams have been encouraged to do better by their age long rival with Beverly Hills.“There’s a big rivalry between Beverly and Samo, especially recently, with the standings,” Fischer said. “At the first Ocean League meet, Beverly beat the boys (we got second), but the girls beat Beverly. Then it switched. At the second league meet the boys beat Beverly, but the girls lost.”The Ocean League finals concluded on Oct. 31. There were five races.According to Fischer, Samo won four of the five races, and got second place in the last race. Boys’ junior varsity won first place, girls’ junior varsity won first place, girls’ varsity won first place, boys’ freshman/sophomore won first place, and girls’ freshman/sophomore won first place. Boys’ varsity placed 2nd, but a very close second behind Beverly Hills.Fischer was still pleased with the outcome of the varsity boys’ race.“I think our guys ran the best they possibly could. It’s just that the cards fell for Beverly,” Fischer said. “It wasn’t an easy task for them. I mean, they ran their hearts out. Every guy was like passed out and they all ran their personal best by about 30 seconds. Every guy ran faster than they ever had before to push Beverly to run their fastest times ever. It was pure competition and in the end I can’t be upset. I’m like wow, they pushed themselves to a limit. What else can I ask of them as a coach?” Fischer said.Fischer also speaks about the positive effects of the running competitions.“With running it’s really all about improving overall. Even if they beat us, or we beat them, there’s a respect because it brought the level of the both the teams up,” said Fischer. “Everyone’s running so fast, and everyone’s improving. It’s a good thing.”cdebeus@thesamohi.com