By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
SANTA ROSA — As a freshman, Santa Rosa’s Kamryn Lara had to adjust to running cross-country at the varsity level.
After getting through that transition period, however, she quickly moved up the ranks of her team and finds herself ready to represent Santa Rosa in the UIL Cross-Country State Championships at Settler’s Park in Round Rock this Saturday.
For Lara, her trip to state will allow her to top off her cross country year by crossing her starting goal off her list.
“Of course, I wanted to make it to state, but if I thought I couldn’t do it this year, I at least wanted to see myself at regionals trying my hardest,” Lara said. “I ended up making it and now, I accomplished my goal for this year.”
Lara finished 14th overall with a time of 13:08.60 at the Region IV 3A meet in Corpus Christi this past Monday beating her previous PR of 13:18, which she reached at the meet of champions.
While Lara has steadily improved throughout the year, she first needed to become accustomed to the high school speed of the races.
After she was, head cross country coach Johnny Cipriano says it was her talent that has gotten her here, not so much the coaching.
“It was just adjusting to the training. In middle school, they obviously don’t train the same as we do here at the high school level,” he said. “The only thing I’ve really told her was to try starting fast to avoid the pack of runners because she would start off in the middle, pass some people and stay there.
“She did that at regionals and it paid off. Mostly I’ve just tried to keep her focused and help her take some of the mental pressure off herself.”
As a freshman, Lara is enjoying the ride, but can’t help feel some nerves.
However, the nervousness is mostly due to the unknown.
“Making it as a freshman, really gives me confidence, but at the same time, I’m nervous because I don’t know how it’s going to be over there. I don’t know what to expect from the other competitors.”
With three more years to go, Cipriano feels that Lara will keep getting better, but as that happens, expectations will get higher.
It’s all about keeping her mentally prepared along the way.
“I hope that mentally she’s better, because that’s important. She’s adjusted and doing well,” he said. “Kamryn has a lot of potential and can meet expectations as long as we, the people pulling the strings, pull the right ones and don’t break her.”
Lara is ready to meet those expectations and plans to continue using her love of the sport to push her through to the end.
“Since I made it as a freshman when people thought I might get burned out because of how much I work out, I feel like I can make it all four years,” Lara said. “(To avoid getting burned out) just have to remember how much I love to run.”