As of November 13th, 2024, at around 12:55, the Rio Norte Cross Country team came back to campus as champions. That day, they set a new record for the middle school Hart District Cross Country meet with the least points (6), making them 1st place champions for the 2024 meet.
Back in late September, Rio Norte’s PE held tryouts in class where students had to run the “Rio Trio,” which held a total distance of 1 ½ miles. They were graded based on the least amount of time they could run the course. Later the PE teachers gathered the top 20 kids from each grade, separated by gender, to form Rio Norte’s Cross Country team. A meeting was held for the students to go to during brunch and learn more information about the Cross Country Meet on November 13th. Practices were held after school for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and were led by the PE teacher, Mr. Stroh. Even before the tryouts, practices were held a week early for students who wanted to do well and prepare for the tryouts. Later in the season when the meet came closer, Mrs. (Art) James, who is also Valencia High School’s Cross Country coach, came over with some of her high school students to practice with Rio Norte. On the last Thursday’s-practice, Rio’s Cross Country team was invited to practice at Central Park on the same course that would be run at the meet.
When November 13th finally arrived, students went to the locker rooms to change into their P.E. shorts and were given a shirt that said “Rio Norte Cross Country.” Once all changed, the students piled into the gym where “Art” James was taking roll call. Both Mr. Stroh and “Art” James went over the behavior and expectations of Rio students and got everyone onto the bus. Upon arriving at Central Park, students were given a bib that had their number and tags they would tie onto their shoes that would track their speed during the race. As a tradition, everyone from all the schools walked the course before the actual race with Rio Norte leading it.
After all 4 races, the website, ca.milesplit, kept a record of all the scores and times of everyone in the race; showed that Rio Norte was in the lead for both 7th-grade divisions and the 8th-grade girls. When all the races were fully completed, the people running the meet took some time to gather all the scores which gave the schools enough time to replenish tired students and families opportunities for photos. When everyone was called over for the award announcements, the announcer started by giving a “Shoutout” and thank you to the person who pushed for and helped create the annual Cross Country meet for Hart District’s middle schools and the 1980s. Moving onto the winners, the announcer started with the 7th-grade girls (40 points), 7th-grade boys (44 points), and 8th-grade girls (37 points) – in all categories Rio took 1st place, meanwhile, in the 8th-grade boys’s division, Rio Norte was able to make 3rd (90 points). To see the results of everyone who ran, people can go to ca.milesplit.com to view both placement and times.
Altogether, Rio Norte had the lowest amount of points in the whole meet, making Rio Norte’s Cross Country team the 2024 champions of the Hart District Cross Country Meet.