Cross Country Charts a Winning Path

The cross country team has been successful so far this season, placing in Counties and improving overall as a team.

Anika Sanka, Co-Editor-in-Chief

October 19, 2025

Girls XC team poses with their trophy after winning 2nd overall at the Northport meet.

The cross country team is off to a strong start, with both the boys’ and girls’ teams landed in the top 10 at the County Championships. This meet counted as their senior night, marking the middle of their season with two meets left before their district finals on Nov. 4.

“The team definitely has a reason to celebrate, girls got 4th and boys got 6th at the County Championships,” Coach Manuel Montero said.

However, this success hasn’t come easy. An average week for the cross-country team includes mileage runs of 4-5 miles Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays are workout days at Picnic Island where the team trains for peak fitness in the heat and open terrain, and has been described as “humbling.” Fridays consist of a lighter run to get ready for Saturday which is race day.

Additionally, it’s not just the mileage that makes XC a high achieving sport: it’s the commitment they have to making their goal of reaching states for the fourth year in a row. The season includes conditioning spanning the entire summer and practices on Thursday and Friday are often held at 6 a.m. or earlier, proving participants’ devotion to the sport.

“I’ve done lots of running getting base mileage over the summer, I ran over 200 miles to prepare,” Boys XC Captain Jacob Sackenheim (’27) said.

Along with intense training, the team has also been working on overcoming one of their biggest obstacles: injuries.

“We’re kind of still going through it [their biggest obstacle], but everybody’s getting injured. So we really need to prioritize strength training and making sure we’re stretching so that we can get over this hurdle,” Girls XC Captain Sarah Tate (’26) said.

The team has grown substantially from last year, leaving more room for improvement and a stronger team spirit.

“We have a bunch of new sophomores and freshmen this year, which is really exciting because the team is getting bigger and our front runners are good. We have a freshman Alina, who’s our third runner, and she’s really fast, and Harper and Sarah are our top girls, and they’re improving a lot. They’re getting PR’s at a lot of the meets so it’s going good,” Girls XC Captain Reid Taggart (’26) said.

With the growth of the team, captains hope to foster new lead runners to help fill in the seniors’ places once they leave.

“So far, the boys team is doing really well with training and maintaining consistency. We hope to get top 20 at States, and I believe we have some boys who can be some elite runners for Robinson in the future. I believe we’re ready to crush it at Districts,” Sackenheim said.

Due to their success in the County Championships and the development of the team, the future of the XC team is looking bright with Districts and States on the horizon. The team has shown that with dedication and community, you can set the pace for the season.

“I think we have a really good chance to be better this season, just because of how many more people we have this year to help us improve. I think every season, at least for me, my love for it [XC] grows,” Tate said.

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About the Contributor

Anika Sanka, Content Co-Editor-in-Chief

Anika Sanka is a senior at Robinson High School and is the co-editor-in-chief (EIC) of the Knight Writers. This is her third year on staff. In her freshman year, even though she wanted to be on newspaper, she chose to do an AP elective. The following year, she joined the newspaper after being recommended to it by her cousin, Vikram Sambasivan, a former EIC of the Knight Writers. “I really wanted to do an elective that wasn’t an AP just to boost my GPA, but something I could actually do something in. I also wanted to improve my writing,” Sanka said. Being an EIC this year, Sanka has many goals for the newspaper as a whole. One of them is to earn an All-Florida award from the Florida Scholastic Press Association. “I think we are very capable of it. I’m honestly so happy I am EIC now,” Sanka said. “I now have the position and ability to implement things so we can be a really be a well-structured newspaper and win these awards.” Outside of newspaper, Sanka enjoys spending time playing sports. She is on the varsity track team, but she also likes to find time to play other sports as well. “In middle school, I did rowing for a while; that was fun, but I just wasn’t the best at it. I always found my way back to running. I love track. I love our community, and I love the team. I’ve also been dancing for a while. I like doing sports and activities like this just for fun,” Sanka said. When Sanka isn’t running or working, she enjoys spending free time watching 2000s movies with friends. In addition, Sanka doesn’t have a particular favorite music artist, but her favorite music genres are pop, rock and indie. “[My favorite movie is] ‘She’s the Man.’ It’s a 2000s movie, and it has Amanda Bines in it, and I just love her movies. The 2000s are just so good, and they are comfort movies,” she said. Being a senior, Sanka wants to go to Emory University in Atlanta or the University of Florida. She wants to study law or journalism “It [Emory University] is beautiful, it has nature, and cool extracurriculars. I want to go into law or journalism; something in the English and communications field. They have cool political science programs which I want to go into,” Sanka said. (Profile by Allison Bartlett)