Cross Country is a family tradition

For Leticia Mayorga, Cross Country was a logical sport to choose. “I chose to do Cross Country because my sister and brother had both done it before me,” she said. Her sister Rita is now 20 and her brother Hector is 26, and she’s been running after them for a long time. “I started running in middle school for my school’s team.”

“My most memorable meet was the Woodbridge Invitational last year. The race itself wasn’t that great for me, I wasn’t that happy with my time, but the meet was fun because it’s in Southern California. It’s exciting to go on a trip with your teammates. It’s fun to see them race and see other schools you’ve never seen before as well as schools that are in the League, but the most fun part about that meet is usually after, since we go back to the hotel and don’t have to go to sleep early to be well rested for a meet the next day.”

This hasn’t been an easy year for Mayorga athletically, though. “COVID basically got rid of any conditioning period I may have had. This has made it extremely difficult to stay in shape because I am not motivated to run on my own. This means that, unfortunately, I am out of shape for the upcoming season.”

Mayorga played soccer in her freshman and sophomore years and plans on running track in the spring, but has no plans to continue running for her college team in the future, “although I would be interrupting in joining a running club, if my school has one,” she said. While she has no intention of running for her college team, she would encourage high school students who are considering sports to give them a try. “There’s no shame in trying a sport and dropping it if you don’t like it,” said Mayorga.

She plans to attend a Community College for a couple of years before transferring to one of her dream colleges, perhaps UC Berkeley or Cal Poly SLO, where she will major in Computer Science.

Running is only one of the things that take up Mayorga’s time. She has been in Leadership since she was a freshman. She is learning how to roller skate, but also likes to hike and sew in her free time. And while running is one of Mayorga’s hobbies, her role model is dancer Charli D’Amelio (TikTok), an athlete who has a different strength, but the same positive attitude.