The crowd is going nuts. School logos and team colors blended together in a mob of ambitious runners as they start to creep in closer to the final lap, trying not to miss a moment, all while the crowd gets louder and louder.

The 2018 Cross Country Invitational was held at Woodward Park on Saturday, Sept. 8.

“Due to my situation I was not able to train with the team before the invitational, so I just stayed in my home town and trained by myself,” freshman Alex James-Garcia said before he began his race..

Although Garcia did not place in the top 20 Head Coach Bluth had many words for all of his runners.

“All of the runners ran top tier today and even though we didn’t have two of our women that were not able to run because of work and one of our top runners was not able to make it we had some guys place in the all tournament team,” Bluth said.

Eliel and Jose Mosqueda made the all tournament team in the 4 mile with Eliel coming in 10th and Jose placing in 13th.

“Although this is my first time running the 4 mile, my 3 mile time is 15 minutes and 50 seconds, so I feel good and i’m well rested,” Mosqueda said.

The women did not come in the top 20, and due to medical issues sophomore Justine Lubbers was not able to finish the race the way she wanted to as she finished in the back with 4 runners behind her.

“Each of my races I have high standards for myself, and goals for myself to not get near the end like I did this time and i try to aim towards the middle,” Lubbers said.

Lubbers has runner’s asthma, and the inhaler she takes before each race was not working.

“I had two episodes in the middle of my race, but I continued on and kept on going because I did not want to be a quitter and that is also not how I was raised,” Lubbers said.

After the race Lubbers said she felt a sense of accomplishment that she finished the race, and didn’t finish last.  

The Rams next meet is the So-Cal Preview Meet and will be held at Cerritos Regional Park Friday, Sep. 14 at 10 a.m.