Falls Church Jaguars Take Home 2 Trophies
November 5, 2021
On October 16th, 2021 in Mechanicsville, Falls Church’s cross country team and many more teams across Virginia and neighboring states came together to the XC Invitational. The XC Invitational is a cross-country meet where runners come together and participate in races where rewards are given. The XC invitational held 12 races. There were around 150 teams that took part in the event. Some Fairfax County schools that participated were Annandale, Fairfax, Justice, and Falls Church. Out of those races, Falls Church participated in 4 of the races, the Girls Elite Varsity race, Varsity B Girls race, Varsity B Boys race, and JV Boys 2 race. During the races,Falls Church won as a team , while also winning 3rd place in the Varsity B Boys race with 228 points, and winning first place in the JV boys race by 34 points.
One of Falls Church’s runners, Brayan Cruz-Cruz shared his thoughts on how he did throughout the race stating, “In the first mile I felt good, but the wrong thing I did while running was that I went too fast, so during the second mile I began getting tired. Then, I began slowing down, and I began to feel the heat and dehydration. However, I kept going because I only had 1 ½ miles left to run. Then, when I only had around 200m to the finish line I felt more motivated and sprinted my way to the finish line. It was a good race.” Brayan Cruz-Cruz ended the interview with a comment on how he thought his team did during the Varsity B Boys race saying, “Since we’re all able to run around the same pace, I think that helped us get 3rd place in the race.” Throughout each race, there were many awards given. On Milestat’s website it says, the top 3 teams receive trophies and the top 15 individual finishers receive medals.
On Milestat’s website, it states that the course used for the runners is a, “Very special one that is only used for this invitational and elite college races such as the Atlantic 10 Conference meet. It is made for PR’s (personal records). The course is made of grass and dirt. It has a great atmosphere as the course goes around our infield area that usually has well over a thousand people watching and cheering at any point!” During the event, it could be seen that this statement was true with many people crowding around the course to cheer on runners or to take photos. During the day there were food stands where you could buy pizza, bbq, ice cream, and shaved ice. There was also a stand where you could buy T-shirts and sweatshirts for the event. There was aDJ playing music to create an upbeat atmosphere too.
Kimberly Cruz-Cruz is an 8th grader going to Glasgow Middle School. She is from El Salvador though she grew up in the United States. Some things she enjoys are binging shows, watching Animes and K-dramas. Some of her favorite shows are Devilman Crybaby, Jujutsu kaizen, and Vincenzo. She also enjoys listening to music. She enjoys listening to piano music and k-pop. Some of her favorite artists are FKJ and TXT. She likes crocheting and playing basketball. A fun fact about her is that she has a cat.
