By Kevin Perez

After a hot summer, the last thing you would expect is a whole bunch of high schoolers running in the blazing sun. The cross country team is full of determined students who are considered "the nicest kids in the school" according to Coach Prado. These kids literally run miles almost everyday for the love of the sport and nothing more. One of their best runners is Raul Vazquaz. He is the first runner in Prado's coaching career to run 5k in under 18 minutes. Raul has also earned multiple awards including Student Athlete of the Year. 

This Sunday Raul and the team will be going up against other runners in the most anticipated cross country meet of the early season, The Mayors Cup. Last year Jackie and Raul finished in the top 100 and they're looking to improve on that success. This year we're hoping to have more people finish with higher ranks, since we have new recruits who are very athletic, as well as our old recruits, Kevin wang, Raul Vasquez, Jackie Chen, Chris Tavera, Olivia Balla, Nuha Asad, Tuhina Hossain and others. According to Prado, he loves the team and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. He will be very sad when his seniors leave, but he is excited that the school is expanding and he'll gain a greater amount of recruits that will make the program even stronger.