With seven meets under their belts, runners for the California Pintos cross country team continue to improve their times throughout the season.
Head coach Kenny Goans said the team is starting to compete with other teams.
“We are starting to compete with other teams as the season progresses,” Goans said. “Unfortunately, in some levels, we cannot compete as a team because of low numbers. Individually, however, we have some great performers.”
Goans said the biggest surprise so far has been the way the varsity boys team is passing packs of other runners during meets.
“At the beginning of the season, they would run in a pack but not overcome other teams,” Goans said. “Coach (Austin) Baker and I have reinforced that if you run as a pack, you must pass as a pack. They are now doing that.”
Runners on the high school and middle school teams have become more competitive, Goans said.
“Both high school and middle school runners are working hard to finish in the upper level of the meets,” Goans said.
As the season continues, Goans said he would like to see the runners push their teammates a little bit more, as that can help the team make some changes.
“At times, the cross country runners need to put a little more pressure on each other to get better each week,” Goans said. “Athletes know what the coaches want them to do but when the team pushes each other, that’s when big changes happen.”
The team has hit some of the goals its had set for its speed workouts, but Goans said there is still some work that needs to be done.
“Our speed workouts have improved drastically. We’ve hit time goals for 800 meters, 1000 meters and 1600 meters intervals,” Goans said. “We still have work to do with our shorter intervals and changing speeds. Coach Baker and I have noticed we are starting to finish strong the last mile.”
The team has made improvements to how it does in the first and last parts of a race. Goans said that they are now working on getting stronger during the middle part of the race.
“At the beginning of the season, we were weak in the first and last part of the race,” Goans said. “We have fixed most of that. Our goal now is to finish stronger in the middle to become solid. If we do that, we have a good chance to finish in the top three with our remaining meets.”
The team’s next meet is at 9 a.m Oct. 3 at North Callaway.