For the first time in school history, an Akins boys team claimed bragging rights when the cross country team won the district championship.

The runners were aware they had a chance to claim the championship, but were surprised when they found out they won because it was a very close finish, Cross Country Coach Juan Rodriguez said.

“We knew we were gonna be close, but we didn’t know for sure until they posted results from which we were very shocked,” he said. “My thought was that we didn’t make it because our fifth runner was farther back, but because our first four finished so high we were able to win it.”

Senior Cassius Serf-Roberts said it means a lot to him to have lead the first Akins boys team to win a district championship.

“It means (1) I did my job as a leader and we listened to our coaches, and (2) it means the team wasn’t running for themselves, they were running for and towards history with confidence,” he said.

It took the team whole to win the championship. They started preparing early enough to train their bodies for all of their races Cross Country Coach Juan Rodriguez said.

“Well the preparation began in the first week of June as soon as school let out last year we started prepping,” he said. “The kids who ran at this district race have been running all summer long as their training.”

Although they didn’t advance past the regional competition, they were satisfied with their overall results.

“I was very happy about my performance at the regionals meet,” Serf-Roberts said. “My placing was much better than last year’s and my time was much better, as well. I will say that if my time was just a little faster I wouldn’t have been saying I missed state by this amount of seconds, I’d be saying I made state by that amount of seconds. We can’t dwell on the past we can only get better and move forward.”
Serf-Robert said he is confident that the team can continue into the future with better results.

“As long as the team continues to do what we’ve been doing and they stay on their grind I know they’ll continue to be a dominant team in this district,” he said.

The boys are already anticipating the Nike Cross South Regional which will take place Nov. 18 in Houston, Texas.