Cross Country
You Don’t Want to Cross These Bruins
By: Hugo Rosiles
The 2022-2023 Greenfield Cross Country team was one of the fall sports in Greenfield High School last year that brought a championship to Greenfield High School and had a successful season. At the start of the season, the Greenfield Cross Country team was not on anyone’s radar to win one meet, let alone finish as league champions. In the Cypress League last year, the Bruins were ranked as one of the mediocre teams in a league of seven: Marina, Notre Dame, Palma, Seaside, The York School, and Trinity Christian stood as their competitors. Despite these rankings, the team believed they could win the league and strived to do so.
The season started off with the jamboree and after getting third place at the meet as a team that motivated the entire team to get better and practice harder which set up for the first official meet of the year. The Bruins won all four league meets completely dominating their league and advanced to the CCS championship race where they were outmatched. The top runners for the Varsity Boys team, consisted of 10th grader Fabian Serrano, 12th grader Leyder Hernandez, 2023 Class graduate, Immanol De Jesus, 11th grader Larry Picazo, 11th grader Irvin Hernandez, and 10th grader Adrian Picazo. As for the Varsity Girls team it consisted of 2023 Class graduate, Jimena Hernandez, 12th grader Yareli Meza, and 10th grader Izoida Ramirez.
When asked, G.H.S. senior Leyder Hernandez told The Bruin’s Eye that his initial reaction about winning the cypress league was, “I was joyful because we worked hard for it even though it didn’t feel too hard to accomplish overall it was fun to do.” He had this to say about their success last year. “I thought our success last year for cross country was nothing less than a dream because it felt like we were just dominating our league.” The 2022-2023 Cross Country team ended up with 2 Cypress League Championships along with an Honor Coach for Coach Juan Villagomez, making him only the third Honor Coach in Greenfield Bruin history.
Cross Country Season This Year
A worrying start of the year greeted our cross country team in the Fall of 2022 as they learned they had a decrease in the number of runners from the prior year. Going into the 2023-2024 Cross Country season, the Greenfield Bruins saw an increase in runners this year. We had around twenty or more runners join the team. Coach Angel Villagomez told The Bruins Eye, “There’s always students that want to be part of a sport (a family.) So as long as there is a coach willing to support the sport, there will always be a team.”
Since the Cross Country Team won the Cypress League they moved up to the Mission League. Which contains teams such as Gonzales, Soledad, Watsonville, King City, and many other great teams. This is good for the team, it provides more competition for our runners, and hopefully, this will give them the motivation to get better. This year’s roster has not only improved, but they have put in the work throughout the summer and so far this year, and as a result of this we hope to see faster race times from everybody. The team's cohesion is there, and all members of our team continue to get along. Coach Juan Villagomez told The Bruins Eye, “We have a more experienced team, and with that, we hope we are more dedicated to the workouts and the bondage of our team.”
To start off this season Bruins have had two races so far, the King City Jamboree which the Varsity Boys finished in 2nd. The second race was the North Monterey Country Invitational, where the team saw everyone break the PR (“Personal Record”) on their time, which is a great to start the season. The Girls Varsity Team for 2023-2024 Cross Country Team consists of Izoida Ramirez, Yareli Meza, Mikaila Martens, Yasmin Martinez, Yolanda Martinez, Gracie Mata, and Alondra Lopez. The entire Cross team puts in the work and is ready to try hard and give it their all this year. For now, our top runners on the Boys' Varsity Team are Fabian Serrano (10th grade), Leyder Hernandez (12th grade), Prisciliano Garcia (9th Grade) Ivan Martinez (12th Grade), Irvin Hernandez (11th Grade) Larry Picazo (11th grade) and Adrian Picazo (10th grade). The Greenfield Cross Country Varsity Teams for the 2023-2024 season.
Expectations for the Season
The Greenfield Bruins hope to win back-to-back league titles, for both boys and girls. On top of that, they also want to win the CCS championship race and advance to the state championship race in Fresno in late November. Our other goal is to win another Honor Coach of the Year, whether for Coach Angel or Coach Juan because they are both great coaches.
If the Bruins win the CCS championship race it would make it the 3rd CCS Cross Country Title won by Greenfield in the school's history. When asked about the expectations he has for the team this year, Coach Juan told The Bruins Eye, “For everyone to work to their potential and with that everyone works hard to get to the state race.” Coach Angel told The Bruins Eye, “My hopes and thinking at the beginning of the season was a yes. At this point, because of some key injuries and some inconsistencies, things have changed a little, but the expectation is still there.”
In the school's history, the team has only gone to the state race twice and has come up short at Fresno where the race is held every year and the team believes that they can win the race and bring home the first State Championship in the school's history.