By Emma Moriarty
Running in the dark seems like something only meant for people in horror movies and vampires (because of modern literature it is potent that there be a differentiator between the two), but the Tempe Prep cross country team was doing just that on the Friday of fall break. While everyone else got to go home and relax, maybe eat Sweet Tomatoes until they cannot walk, the running team was eating a light, healthy lunch and preparing for their meet later that night. This is the only meet which is in the dark, hence the name “Desert Twilight,” so it is a very exciting adventure for old and new members alike.
Shockingly, running is a lot easier and much more fun without the glaring sun above, even though we do love the scorching Arizona heat. Thus, because of the reduction in direct solar rays and a general temperature of 80, our cross country team ran an amazing race. Assistant coach Mrs. Camberg describes how well the team did at the recent meet: “It was the Desert Twilight meet, one of top 10 cross country meets in the nation. Teams from all over Arizona and out of state. Nineteen different races take place, all 5k distance, several thousand high school runners. Our team saw almost everyone PRing (they got a personal best record) by 2 minutes and even had two outstanding improvements:  PR of 4:24 seconds by freshman Mitchell Rhines. Nizhoni Saenz had a huge PR also 4:06 seconds.
“Coming up we have Titan Invitational on Oct. 16 at Crossroads Park in Gilbert (same course as sectionals) to help the team prepare for Sectionals (state qualifying meet).”
We are very gifted to have such amazing assistant coaches like Mrs. Camberg and Mrs. DiCaro!
It has been an amazing season so far and we will continue to see such great improvements during the weeks to come! Come support your fellow Knights during their meets and help cheer them on to the state championships!