Trinity’s cross country team experienced a few changes going into the 2025 season.
The team moved to the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) along with the rest of Trinity athletics.
The new conference presents the team with new meet locations. The next one is in Louisville, KY on Oct. 4.
The team also welcomed 27 new first-years to the roster this season.
The 2025 roster is made up of 32 women and 31 men, compared to 22 women and 26 men in 2024.
Junior cross country captain Annette Smith said she was looking forward to the new season. Smith said it was exciting to see the sophomore runners stepping up this season, which reflected in their time trials.
“When I look at our top eight runners, it’s such a mix of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and I think that’s really cool to just have that mix,” Smith said.
Last year, the men’s team finished second in the SCAC championships, and placed eighth in the NCAA regional championships. The top three finishers in the men’s team in the SCAC championship graduated last year. Senior runner James Rush is heading into his final season on the team. After the past three years, Rush discussed how his training over the summer will set him up for the year.
“I’ve struggled with some injuries and setbacks, but this summer I had a really strong block of training,” Rush said. “I was at altitude for two months, so I’m really excited about that, excited about running. We had some kind of heavy hitters, some big guys graduated, so there’s big shoes to fill, which to me, is exciting.”
To Smith, aside from new competition and travel opportunities, switching conferences means leaving behind old rivalries.
“It’s kind of unsatisfying as a senior, because we have like these teams that we’ve been competing against for a long time, and we’ve definitely had a rivalry with Colorado College, and they were a super strong program,” Smith said. “We had victories against them, but we never really showed them what we could do. And so now it’s like, as a senior, to kind of have that build up and then not have that [match up]. It’s kind of frustrating.”
Rush said the team was super hungey and excited to compete in anew conference in the upcoming season.
“I think our team is super hungry. We really were excited to compete against new people, and at the very beginning of the year, they released conference rankings, and we were ranked second,” Rush said. “Second is not good enough. So now we have something to prove, so that was good fuel for the fire.”
Cross country’s team dynamic goes beyond scoring. In the last meet with University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) on Aug. 29, the men’s and women’s teams finished fourth. Smith said the girls team buys flowers to give to one another at races. Instead of the same tradition continuing at this meet, the men’s team got them flowers instead.
“I think it’s just very family-oriented and everyone looks out for each other.” Smith said.
Aside from race traditions and cheering each other on, building team chemistry also happens in their training. The runners complete their typical 36-90 miles of training per week in smaller groups based on pace. Junior runner Sophia Munoz explained their training method.
“I think that there’s a kind of overall coordination that has to happen within the team and this is just like surface level. The team aspect is obviously you have to work together to pick up slack,” Munoz said. “We literally race in little packs like it’ll be like four people per pack. They kinda break it down even more-so that we work out in those little packs that kind of practice that.”
With such intense training, injuries are unfortunately a common occurrence. The team adapts their training to accommodate injured runners,” Munoz said. Cross training allows runners to recover from injuries and continue to train and stay in shape.
“Since a lot of people deal with it now and then throughout their career, there will be somebody there for you at the time,” Munoz said. “A lot of people will cross train because it’s lower impact. They’ll bike or swim or something and you’ll have your own little group that are also injured so there’s that sense of camaraderie with that so you’re not just kind of alienated.”
The team’s next stop will be competing in Hillsboro, Texas for the Hill College Cross Country Classic. This meet will split up the “travel” and “non-travel” squads. The team will be able to watch runners they typically wouldn’t be able to see compete because they are racing themselves.
“That’s just gonna be the first time that we actually split,” Smith said. “Some people are racing, but that’s what makes it more exciting. It’s the people not racing because we’re traveling the following week just like being able to watch and cheer them on because that’s not something to do.”
The cross country team will go on to face new competition for the rest of the year as they take on the SAA. They will travel all around Texas, Kentucky, Illinois and California for the rest of their season.
