Great Oak High School's track team targets Isaac Cortez's 800-meter record of 1:50.4 and the 1600-meter record of 4:04. After a painful cross-country season ended with a runner's disqualification that cost them a state title, coaches are using that loss as fuel, building confidence through interval workouts and race-pace training.
When you come to Great Oak, you're not like, especially when you're a top athlete, you're expected to be serious.
I want to have, you know, break our school record of 1:50.
The school record is 1:50.4 from Isaac Cortez.
Isaac Cortez, Trojan home! These school records are pretty old, but they're really fast still. I mean, having a 1:50, you know, is something that very few people can do.
The goal is to perform the very best they can perform, and I think that in doing that, school records will fall.
California State Track Champion from Bredow, the time of 1:50.75, Isaac Cortes!
It is, I believe, like 6:07 in the morning. 6:10 in the morning right now.
What time does school start?
Really cold.
8:30.
8:30, yeah.
So you got a bit of time.
I'm tired.
But then we have weight room. Yeah, so that's fun.
And you can always take your time too. Okay. It's— so cross-country season ended in a really hard place. The boys were supposed to We were supposed to win state. And it's kind of tricky to say that as a coach because everybody wants to say, "Oh, my team should have won state." Well, no, really, we should have won state. And mathematically, we would have won state. So when you have your top performing athlete DQ'd on the line in a cross-country race, when that never happens ever, It was pretty demoralizing.
I feel like we— I was honestly pretty disappointed seeing like the guys when I was a sophomore win and knowing that we had the potential to recreate that and go to Nationals as well. It was really heartbreaking in the moment.
Yeah, so it was like, I would say definitely devastating, obviously, for me and all the guys on the team. At the end of the day, I did make the mistake, so the argument that anything was foul play is out the window. It was my— I made the mistake. Mistake, and I completely own up to it.
All of us were pretty upset by what happened, and I don't think it was fair. I think we all think we're on the same page with that, but you can't let something like that drag you down. I mean, at the end of the day, it's not in our control. I don't think— I mean, I think some people made some bad decisions. That's my opinion. I'm just putting that behind me, and I'm honestly just using it for energy. I think we can, uh, you know, everybody— we know we're capable, and we all saw that, like, We have power and we're very strong as a team. I think that's going to make us a really competitive team and like very— I think you're going to have to watch us in track because I think we can do some great things. Thank you. That's it.
Kirsten Craig, Matthew Trosten, Devin Cruz, Sebastian Rico, um, Uh, today we're doing 5—
this is actually our second part of our double threshold day, and so what we're going to do is 6 500s, uh, come in the 400 at 64, and then try and finish the 500 at 80. So 16-second 100 after.
I love Jacob. I love Jacob Brown.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Please put that in.
Nice job, Audrey! 73, 74, 75, 76. If they're dependent on their watch, then they don't race as well. They need to be able to pay attention to the race surroundings and to be able to really depend on themselves to know how it feels. To run the right pace. If they know what a 62 feels like or a 64 feels like, then they know how to run the pace they need to run in a race. If they don't know what it feels like, it's hard to do that. Okay, ready? Runner set, go! I started coaching because we didn't have a coach. The previous coach left. It was during COVID or pulling runners out of COVID and some of the runners came to me and they knew I loved marathoning. They knew I loved running. I had good relationships with the runners who had my class, and they wanted somebody to coach who understood running. Okay, good news was you were in range every single rep. Yes? Okay, high five! Nice workout. We just need to like— I think it's said best by one of the athletes I had the first year I was coaching. He was a senior, and he said to me at one of the meets, he said, "You're gonna be just fine as the coach.
You know all of our names." I honestly wanted to quit when I first started. I talked to my coach, Coach Dron, and she said, "Stick with it for 6 weeks." So that's what I did, stuck with it, and I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna trust her." And by 6 weeks, you finally start getting that fitness The runs start feeling easier and you're like, "Hey, I'm out here, I'm working hard with my friends and, you know, like, we're out here to compete." And it just became something that I really liked.
I struggle with self-confidence in running. That's, um, if you ask Coach Mike Tansley or Coach Tammy John, you know, they'll tell you like, "He's quick, he just doesn't have the self-confidence." And I think over this cross-country season, I think the coaches worked really hard, really closely with me. To help me, like, you know, gain some self-confidence. But, like, the thing that I'm really awful at is my get off the line, just boom boom, like, first 3 steps. So I was— that rep, I was like really just like— like, sprints are kind of like— I try to keep them low, keep my body leaning forward.
64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69. Okay, they did a great job today. All right, none of them They kept their paces. Yeah, none of the new runners seemed like they were dying either.
Oh no, they did very good.
They all seem to like that workout. Usually they like that workout. Okay, I think we're good.
I would definitely say a goal for a lot of us is our top 7 from cross has potential of going to state, whether it be an alternate for the 4x8 or on the 4x8 relay team or just individual events.
Time-wise, there's still obviously going to be a goal, you know, everyone's human. I think I would really like to try to go sub-1:50 in the 800.
I want to have, you know, break our school record of 1:50.1.
I've been to the state championship in track twice, and I placed sophomore year, I placed 5th. Junior year, I placed 9th. I really am focusing on the 1600. I want to, I definitely want to like get under 4:05. That's definitely a goal for me.
I feel like that we have some school records that might fall. That's a really big goal. The school records around here are just nothing to shake a stick at, so to speak. They're pretty lofty.
These school records are pretty old, but they're really fast. I mean, having a 1:50, you know, is something that very few people can do. Having a 4:04 mile is something very few people can do. Doing the school record by doing the 150 and the 4:04 at state, one person, Isaac Cortes, I mean like the fact that he did that at state is just absolutely outrageous, you know, you weren't really, barely anyone can do that.
The goals are specific. They are definite. We're working toward them. We know exactly where we want to go. And hopefully, hopefully we'll get to state this year with all of those goals intact, with some really, really cool things happening. But for now, that's all I'll say. The goal is to perform the very best they can perform. And I think that in doing that, School records will fall and performances will be really pretty cool at some amazing meets.
