On Thursday, Sept. 29, Roosevelt Cross Country (XC) had the first League Meet of the season, the Big League VIII Preview. In over 90 degree heat, our girls team finished second overall while our boys team finished third out of six schools.

The meet was held at a course in Riverside, where in addition to the warm weather, the course which was mostly flat, was dusty.

In a pre-race interview, Cross Country Coach David Cummings shared his hopes for the race.

“My expectations are that my athletes follow the race plan and run conservative the first handful of minutes of the race,” Cummings said. He planned for his athletes to make their way up as the race progressed.

This strategy seemed to prove effective as Roosevelt had top ten finishers in almost every race.

Jayden Churchill, a senior on the team recalls his experience running in the JV Boys race.

“It sucked the first two miles, but then the third mile felt pretty good,” Churchill said. “At the end, I beat King’s fifth guy, so we beat King.”

And while some runners felt good about their race, others expressed different feelings.

“Well this morning I was pretty optimistic,” Junior Melissa Moreno who ran the Girls JV race said. “And then I got out here, it was hot, and my body felt heavy

I do think I could’ve done better, but it was really hard.”

Nevertheless, everyone who ran the course from Roosevelt’s Cross Country team finished the race.

Sophomore Hazey Leiva shares her thoughts on the course and her performance.

“It was a very rough course, but after not being in a race for three races I think I did terrific.

Running is fun, do it!” Leiva said.

You can see all results from the race here.

If anyone is looking for more information about Cross Country, you can visit Coach Cummings in E207. You can also check out his website which contains information about current and upcoming events, including fundraisers, race information, and records. And on Instagram, you can find the team @rooseyxc