Runner Up!

Citlaly Franco, Business Editor

December, 2021

After placing second in Regionals in 2019, and completing a better-than-expected 2020 season that was shortened by COVID-19, the KIPP Austin Collegiate Cross Country team started the 2021 season strong and gave it their all. KAC’s Cross Country team is led by head coach Maureen McCready and assistant coach Jose Rocha. According to Rocha, this year’s season was one of KAC’s best with both boys’ and girls’ teams making State. Ultimately, the girls’ team, led by Viviana Vallejo, placed fourth at State and the boys, led by senior Emiliano Martinez, placed seventh. Rocha also pointed out that the team succeeded academically this year, noting that the entire team had passing rate of 100%, best among all KAC sports teams.

This was the first year coaching for Rocha, who also coaches track, and he said it was a great learning experience for him. Rocha used to run when he was in school as well, so he really enjoys being able to coach the KAC team.

Martinez has been on the track and cross country teams since his freshman year, and is considered the fastest runner on the team. This season, he placed 5th in Regionals and 8th in State. Despite all of these accomplishments, he mentioned that it can be very tiring at times. At one of his recent races, he went through one of the worst feelings a runner can experience and that was not being able to  speed up due to the exhaustion. However, all the hard work he puts in paid off since he was able to beat his personal record time of 17 minutes and 39 seconds for the three-mile run. 

All in all, this was by far one of the team’s strongest seasons, bringing home these wins and ending this season strong. We are anxious to see how the team will perform when track season rolls around in spring!