Coach Nick Mattis and the De Anza cross country team are hopeful for the new season. The men’s team placed fourth and the women’s team place first in the Lou Vasquez meet at San Francisco. Currently, the women’s team placed thirteenth in CCCAA and are continuing that success.

The team of seventeen consisting of three sophomores and the rest freshmen, are very optimistic for this season even though for most of them it is a transition from high school athletics to college athletics.

“I feel that we run more as a team in high school which is more team oriented, and we have to be more focused,” freshman Seraiah Alexander, 18, Environmental Science said. “We have to be actually ahead of the game because it is not as lenient as high school is.”

The athletes run six days a week, about six to eight miles on practices and sometimes more, including their invitationals which can sometimes be outside of the bay area.

Coach Mattis wants his team to qualify for the state championships again as they have for the past ten years in his eleven-year career at De Anza. The athletes are thrilled for the final meets and cannot wait to improve their strength, form and pace in every opportunity.

“There’s a lot more patience because we are not peaking right now and we have to wait till the end of the season when we are really gonna be running our best,” said freshman Jillian O’Brien, 18, Engineering.