Practicing since the summer, the cross country team has been putting in hard work. This weekend, they will be running in the Chandler Invitational at Tumbleweed Park.

“This is a big meet, bigger than it was last year because the Sole Sports invitational was the week before, but this year [Chandler Invitational] is the first meet, so a lot of teams are using this meet as a season opener, when last year they would have used Sole Sports,” states team captain and varsity runner, Cade Burks.

Schools from all over the valley will be competing in this race. Team captain and senior varsity runner, Tyler Poates, mentions the goals he has for the boys’ team, which are: “our goals for the team are to place top ten for freshman, take first place for sophomores and juniors, and place top ten for seniors, and hope everyone PR’s.”

Girls’ team captain and senior varsity runner, Casey Van Ryn, states her goals for the girls, “Based off time trials, the girls are very good, the difference in their times were just minutes apart, I hope we just all stick together and do well like we did in the time trials.”

Between the three team captains, Cade Burks, Tyler Poates and Casey Van Ryn, they all agreed that the course was adequate. “I’m kinda bored of it, I’ve ran it a million times already, but it’s a flat course and I know it pretty well; I don’t see any issues with it,” mentions Burks.

Expectations are set very high for the first meet of the season, hopefully Puma cross country can meet these expectations and keep the bar as high the entire season.