On Friday, Sept. 21 and Saturday, Sept. 22, the Ventura High School boys’ and girls’ cross country team’s’ varsity runners went to Clovis, CA for an invitational meet, while the JV team went to their second league meet in Oxnard.

Because of possible physical ramifications that could have come from racing with full effort in extreme heat, the team decided to take the meet easy and use it as a workout. Junior Nathan Ayala, a runner on the varsity team, commented, “Due to the 95 degree weather, cross country decided to take this previous race [at Clovis] as a workout.”

Ayala commented on the season so far saying, “We are doing really well. We have some of our top guys running really well.” Ayala also said that “[senior] Jake Grajeda brings good leadership as a captain, and [senior] Charlie Hammel pushes us as runners.”

Freshman Rebecca Locher said that the girls cross country has a “really strong team, a lot of good girls, and [works] really well together.” Though the race wasn’t ran with complete effort, she said it provided “a very good experience running the state meet course.”

Coach Tyree Cruz said, “Runner sophomore Chris Cruz went out really hard… If he keeps racing like that he will be varsity soon.”