When junior Gabriel Rosa runs, the roads are limitless and know no bounds.  

“Running is like an open road, you can just go anywhere,” Rosa said.  “You don’t have to stick on the same path like track.” 

Gabriel and his cross country teammates worked hard in the summer while looking forward on their road to competition season. 

“My friends, Phillip and Elliot, we grinded a lot this summer to get our times this year for cross country so we could go to regionals.”  

Gabriel and his teammates run miles, and by the time they finish, they feel the result of their journey. 

“We always do five to eight miles total, and whenever we’re finished we’re like ‘dang, that’s pretty good’.” 

Gabriel feels as if whenever he runs that much, he isn’t running for himself but for the effort and dedication for the run.  

“When we’re done, we feel accomplished because it was always a pretty hard run,” he said. 

After Gabriel and his team races, it boosts their belief in themselves and their races as they find the victory in the runs themselves.  

“We felt confident after the runs to do better at the races because the races are pretty much the reward for the runs, because the runs is what helps us do better,” Gabriel said.

To keep this routine going, Gabriel is in a competition with himself to beat his own record and this is what keeps him going. 

“I tried to beat 16, I was 17:07 for my 5k but trying to beat that time to get to 16 keeps me motivated,”  he said. 

Gabriel wants to try and be a better version of a runner at Cross Country than the past versions of himself.   

“I wanted to run a decent time for cross country and I wanted to do better this year than last year and the past two years,” he said

To get into this mindset, Gabriel says he keeps going and makes cross country his main thought. 

“You have to have a consistent mindset of running every day and not stopping,” Gabriel said.

****Cross Country Regional Qualifiers: Gabriel Rosas, Phillip Lasley, Elliot Gonzalez, Teah Peeni