The starting gun fires and packs of athletes begin their trek. Among these athletes are the products of Steve Scott – record holder for most miles ran under four minutes.

These particular athletes are the men and women of CSUSM’s cross country team.

Success does not just happen. It’s a culmination of steps taken during the grind of all of the hours put in. Coach Scott teaches his athletes about the little steps.

“Without the little things such as getting the right amount of sleep, eating the right food and stretching before and after practice then you won’t be at your best,” said redshirt senior Trent Warren. “As simple and obvious as it may seem, often times these things get overlooked.”

Lo and behold with all of their races resulting in top eight finishes, the little things appear to be paying off.

Let’s put those rankings into perspective. Each race holds competition ranging from 15 to 23 other schools. Some of these schools are division one ranked universities such as UC Davis and UCLA, while we are barely getting our feet wet in division two.

With the CCAA conference championships steadily approaching, athletes on the team said that their pinnacle has yet to be achieved.

“The combination of everyone’s hard work and excitement about making our first appearance at the CCAA Championship is when I think we’ll dominate more than ever,” said sophomore Natalie Rodriguez.

“We are now starting to get runners back healthy from injuries and with just a few more hard practices, the team will be ready to perform at our conference meet later this month,” said Warren.

Injuries are burdens that are unpredictable, but improving as the season progresses is just what the doctor ordered.

“We still have a couple weeks left of season to show how talented our team is and it’s pretty exciting,” said Rodriguez.

If more talent is to be displayed in the winding weeks of the season, the CCAA needs to be preparing themselves for the men and women cougars.

The Cougars’ next competition will take place this Sunday at the Mangrum Track for the Cougar Challenge. Be sure to come out and support.