Sondheimer: City Section cross-country produces

“We got to make a TikTok video.”

That was overheard on Friday morning as two City Section cross-country runners walked together in the rain at Pierce College at the cross-country preliminaries.

TikTok didn’t exist 50 years in the past when I went to my first City Section cross-country meet. My annual pilgrimage to the City prelims or finals always leads me to uncover a story for readers to get pleasure from. It’s like a squirrel trying for a nut — it’s sure to be discovered. Since cross nation was one of the first sports activities I coated, I always need to return because it’s so indicative of what high college sports activities is meant to be about: Athletes competing for the love of their sport.

City cross nation also offers you an added insight into what Los Angeles seems like with the many different nationalities represented. There had been athletes from 77 Los Angeles Unified School District faculties who had been transported by 34 buses. Rival athletes (Carson and Banning, among others) shared buses because of cutbacks to transportation dispatchers and holding the event on a Friday. When you add constitution faculties, there have been close to 140 faculties’ athletes taking part in the prelims.

All it takes to discover a story is show up and ask a coach.

In explicit, Monroe coach Leo Hernandez always has a story to present. In 2024, I wrote about love brewing at Monroe. In 2016, I wrote about the unintended cross-country star at Monroe. In 2022, I wrote about the Monroe athlete utilizing operating to help him cope.

This 12 months’s feel-good story is about 16-year-old junior Miguel Mora of Carson. He had never run cross nation in his life until this winter. He was a soccer participant for 10 years, taking part in junior varsity at Carson. He was always main the soccer crew when it got here to operating.

“I ran a 4:42 mile, and I had no training,” Mora said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, I want to see what I can do.’”

He gave up soccer, which his soccer-fan father initially didn’t like. After Mora gained the Marine League 1,600-meter title last spring, he remembers visiting his father in the bleachers and seeing him smile.

“He said, “Congrats. You made the right choice.’”

Despite his restricted cross-country expertise, Mora is one of the favorites to win the City Division I championship on Nov. 21 at Pierce College. He completed second at Friday’s prelims with a time of quarter-hour, 26.30 seconds. The winner was another junior, Ethan Funk of Palisades who ran 15:23.70.

Funk and Mora had been pleasant with each other before the race. Again, these cross-country athletes are different. There’s no trash-talking, no disrespect. Their job is grueling, and they perceive what an accomplishment it’s to practice by operating 16 miles in a week and three miles in a race.

“It makes me push myself to the max,” said Mora, who’s an A scholar and takes calculus.

As for switching sports activities, Mora said, “I feel like I was wasting my potential. So I decided to stick to track.”

Welcome to the world of high college cross nation, where there are tales to inform at every race if you ask.