Lehman’s Ramon Martinez (left) and Hays’ Mariana Sigala will be two key contributors for their respective cross-country teams this season. Both squads will try and beat the heat with regular morning workouts at the crack of dawn this summer. (Martinez photo by Judy Cooper, Sigala photo Courtesy Photo)
by JASON GORDON
Rebel and Lobo cross-country teams will be trying to beat the heat this summer.
Both the Lehman and Hays boys and girls cross-country teams will have one workout per day.
Although the Lehman workout will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday August 1, boys cross-country coach Jay Sansom said it will likely move to the morning after that.
“We didn’t want to have parents bringing their kids up to school at dark in the morning on the very first day,” Sansom said. “We wanted to get a chance to meet the newcomers and see who came back from last year’s team.”
Samsom added that the first couple of weeks of workouts for the boys and girls cross-country teams will help get his team into solid shape heading into the meet season.
“Until school starts we’ll be doing a lot of stretching and going on a lot of longer-paced runs,” Sansom said. “By the first day of school we’ll hope to have everyone ready to go. Last year, we had way too many injuries before district. This year we want to have everyone doing well at the pre-district meets but we really want to be healthy and focused on the district meet.”
Lehman’s first cross-country meet will be at Wimberley on August 27.
Hays’ cross-country team will practice every morning at 6:30 a.m. during the summer and once school starts.
“That’s really the safest option,” Hays cross-country coach Cliff Buckley said. “At 9 p.m. it’s still more than 90 degrees outside. We decided 6:30 a.m. is the coolest time of the day we can get our kids up there to run.”
Buckley will use the next couple of weeks to see who sat on the sofa and who was pounding the pavement in June and July.
“It will give me a chance to see who did their workouts over the summer, who half did them, and who didn’t do them at all,” Buckley said.
Hays’ first cross-country meet will take place at the Comal County Fairgrounds in New Braunfels on August 27.
