By Megan Guerrero and Abigail Kim

The Granada Hills Charter (GHC) cross country team victory after their competition at the Rosemead meet on September 9.

This night meet was the first meet of the year where runners were given a personal record time.
GHC had a total of 74 participants in the Rosemead meet, and out of those 74 participants, 30 received a medal and were in the top 75 in their respective races. The sophomore girls and senior boys both received a first-place plaque for their divisions.

One of the notable runners was sophomore Samantha Pacheco, who won 1st place in the individual race and ran the fastest time out of all the girls who participated during the Rosemead meet. In addition, Pacheco’s time of 17:26:3 for a 3-mile course was a significant improvement from our school’s previous best time of 17:58:9 from last year. Senior Alec Flores was the fastest boy on the GHC team winning fourth place in the boy’s senior cross country division and fifth place for the overall meet with his time of 14:44:4.

The rest of the GHC cross-country team also showed significant improvement and success during the meet as well. In cross country, points are determined by what a runner placed in the race. A first-place runner would receive one point, a second-place runner would earn two points, and the total score among the team is added up, meaning the fewer points the better.

The freshman girls received a total of 378 points and placed 16th place out of the 22 teams, and the freshman boys received a total of 313 points, placing 13th out of the 25 teams. The sophomore girls received a total of 82 points and received 1st place out of the 22 teams that participated, and the freshman boys received a total of 185 points and placed 5th place out of 25 teams.

For the juniors, the girls received a total of 256 points and placed 10th place out of 18 teams, and the boys received a total of 279 points placing 9th out of 27 teams. Finally, seniors Lilianna Moreira, Elsa Ludena, and Chloe Miyagishima were all medalists

Many of GHC’s students on the cross country team significantly improved on their previous times even if they didn’t receive a medal, making this a very successful meet overall.

“I just like seeing how everyone is progressing, slowly or quickly, how they get better,” senior and captain Elsa Ludena said.

Aside from the fact that the Rosemead meet took place at night, there were other significant features that made it different from your typical cross-country meet.

“I love running at night because the air is crisp,” Pacheco said.
Besides the obvious benefit of being able to run at night, the runners also enjoyed a change of scenery, compared to their usual perspective of the synthetic polyurethane running track and football fields.

“I like Rosemead because you finish by running about 300 meters on the track,” Pacheco said. “I like that part the most because I run track so the finish felt more real.”
Even if they exceeded their personal expectations for themselves at the meet, the cross country team still strives to exceed their times and work harder to get to their new goals.

Their coach is always pushing the team to new heights, working hard in order to move towards their goals.

“Whenever we have meetings, the emphasis isn’t always on let’s get first place or be better than everyone else,” Ludena said. “Rather, we hear, ‘I don’t care if you’re the last person to finish a race. As long as you get a better time that’s good. I just want to see your progress for yourself.’ So I feel like he’s always pushing us a lot.”

After all of the hard training and work they put into preparing for Rosemead, their efforts gave them the results that they had hoped for.