Fall sports have had many differences when it comes to their season, with teams throughout Aliso Niguel High School having mixed results while finishing the season; however, one goal is for certain within the athletic community, which is to compete in the California Interscholastic Federation League (CIF). Many of our teams strive to achieve this goal, especially with Aliso’s very own Girls Cross Country Team, which has been fighting tirelessly to continue playing in the postseason.
CIF produces many new and higher-level challenges and opportunities for the team, with them facing many new tough opponents, including some of the best runners from all over Southern California, with a large number of familiar opponents from the team’s league season also appearing. These races are not like any other since they are the last opportunities to drop time, push limits and have the chance of reaching the ultimate goal of winning CIF.
Traditional CIF events for other sports are organized into head-to-head matchups between two schools in a single-elimination bracket; however, Cross Country CIF is set up where the Aliso team will go up against 4 other teams in a heat with tough competitors like Mira Costa High School, Santiago Corona High School, Beckman High School and San Clemente High School. These meets are as much a team effort as an individual event due to every runner being able to contribute to or hinder the scoring for their program.
The girls team has been constantly preparing and training for their events, pushing themselves to improve their times to take the top spots and place well while running against the other schools with a majority of their training contributing to both their endurance and speed with Coach Colwell, lead coach of the Girls Cross Country Team, saying, “We train daily–hills, intervals, distance runs around 28 miles a week right now.”
However, the success of the Cross Country team does not come without its many challenges to overcome, including the prevention of injury. This sport is very demanding, especially on the athlete’s mind and body. Injuries are a constant concern for the team, with them avoiding overexertion and the straining of their bodies. Mental fatigue is also taken seriously by the program due to the feeling of failure of a previous race being able to affect the performance of a future race.
When asked how the girls will overcome these obstacles they face, Coach Colwell enthusiastically put, “We just keep practicing and work on shrugging off bad races. They happen, and you have to move on and not dwell on them. The girls have been great about bouncing back!”
This year’s class for Girls Cross Country contains six seniors, all of whom have been role models for the underclassmen and have set the bar for the next generation. The strong unity, camaraderie and hard work the Girls Cross Country team puts in guarantees how far they will go while competing in the CIF league this year and hopefully inspires others to push themselves as well.
