wd roaring, Anique Villegas, freshman, keept the pace slow and steady with her teammates right behind her.
Villegas placed 18th, with a time of 20:18 on the 3-mile course at the cross-country meet at UC Irvine on Saturday.
Although the women’s team was unable to compete as a team for a lack of runners, the women ran as individual runners.
“We ran as close together as possible,” Villegas said.
Villegas explainined the strategy she and her teammates used to advance in the individual race.
“We only had four runners and we needed five to compete as a team,” Villegas said.
Three of the five women on the team are injured, and due to last week’s meet in Ventura, one of the women was unable to compete, leaving the women’s team one runner short.
“There is always an ache or pain,” Dean Lofgren, coach, said.
“There is a high risk for chronic injuries. We are sore in a day and then it goes away and something new is sore next week. It’s just the nature of the sport,” Lofgren added.
Nicole Sroczynski, freshman, placed 25th, with a time of 20:34.3, which has helped her realize areas that need improvement.
“We are very competitive,” Sroczynski said.
“I think we push each other and make each other better by running next to each other to push ourselves,” Sroczynski said.
Although few people were in attendance at the 8 a.m. meet, Sroczynski explained how the men’s team was there to cheer on the women’s team and show team spirit.
With the team preparing for the Orange Coast Invitational this Saturday, the UC Irvine Invite was a chance for the team to anticipate the larger competitions in the following weeks.
“The track was not too hard and had some hills that were very gradual and a lot of downhills,” Villegas said.
“I feel a lot more confident for Saturday’s meet,” Villegas said.
“I went out too fast and need to keep a better pace than I did at the last race,” Sroczynski said.
“There are little things I can work on, but, overall, I think I’m doing OK. People ask me ‘What’s your strategy? and I tell them that I just want to do my best,” Sroczynski said.
Reo Miranda, 17, undecided major, ran the men’s 8-kilometer race and placed 46th, with a time of 27:01.3 with an injured knee from last week’s meet in Ventura.
“The competitors follow their results from high school and I knew what I was up against,” Miranda added.
The competitors have track, cross-country experience and are well prepared for the meets, most of them precede and take pride of their high school statistics and records, he said.
“It was everything I expected, I prepared myself for this competition by having no expectations,” Miranda said.
With no specific strategy in mind and no anticipations Reo was able to compete with the some of the best runners, he added.
“I was disappointed, I tried the best I could and I was injured,” Miranda said.
The injury prevented Miranda from giving an outstanding performance, eventhough he had no expectations, he was upset and blamed his injury for placing 46th.
During the Ventura meet Miranda got a minor injury on his left knee Miranda said.
“My IT band is injured and so is the bottom of my knee,” Miranda said.
An IT band injury is a common injury within the sports, specially runners and if the muscle is being flexed or extended the muscle will swell and create discomfort, he said.
“It stared killing me on the third mile, so I just kept pushing through it with whatever mental strength I had,” Miranda said.
Going to the meet and really trying to
Although several of the runners were injured, the cross-country team placed 14th out of 19 schools, with the competition being spread out between community colleges, four year colleges and universities.
“We got our bells rung a little bit,” Lofgren, said.
“This wasn’t so much our opportunity not to run with the four years but our opportunity to run against them. This year we are in the middle of it,” Lofgren said.
The next meet is Saturday at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa at 9:30 a.m. where the men’s and women’s cross-country teams will compete in the Southern California Preview Championchips.
