Running great distances, pushing their limits, sweating out the tears, and excelling beyond their goals, these girls work hard during practice and push even harder during their competitions. The Colton High School Cross Country Girls Varsity Team has pushed themselves past theirs limits and have proven to their school and their city that they can rise to any occasion.
Currently there are seven hard-working runners and for cross country CIF their needs to be a minimum of five with two alternates. Lucky for Colton High School they meet this minimum, but they have proven that the minimum is no challenge for them. For the last two years the Colton High School Girls Varsity Cross-Country Team has qualified for CIF. Originally, they started with eight runners with one of their best runners, Suzy, out of commission for the last length of the season for reasons that are beyond her control. However, Suzy happens to have a twin sister who shares the same passion for running as her sister, Yesenia Bermejo is the second quickest runner on the team.
Yesenia has been running cross country since her freshman year. Which now makes this her third year of running. She says, ”I’ve done cross country because it helps me release stress and I love running, to take my mind off things. I also like the pain because in the end I feel good about it because of what I’ve accomplished.” She exclaimed, "I’m excited for next season, this has been great meeting new people and making friends. Becoming close to other teammates and having fun at meets and having competition. Cross country is is a big part of my life and always will be.”
Missing one of their quickest runners has proven to be a challenge for the team. Only, it has made them strive to excel individually and as a team. Yesenia happens to be the only experienced runner on the team right now. The rest of the runners, Alanna, Tabitha, Gabriella, Lesley, Vivian and Deja were all first-time runners to the sport.
The girls on the cross country team heard of the qualifications needed to make CIF and they spent the season working towards that goal. Finally, achieving this outstanding goal all the girls will compete in the next competition for CIF this coming Friday, November 9 at the A.B. Brown Sports Complex in Riverside.
The girls dedication to the sport and to their team is showing in the results. With this upcoming competition we wish the Colton High School Cross Country Girls Varsity Team much luck in bringing home the gold!