Alejandro Berrio Breaks Cross Country Record

Alejandro Berrio, a Junior, has broken a record for cross country and was placed in 2nd place for regionals.

For the past few weeks, Alejandro has been setting the record for himself by beating it multiple times and he keeps improving. “I broke the record several times this season, first running a 16:07, then a 16:03, then 16:01 and finally at the regional championship where I was 2nd place behind one of the top runners in the state. I smashed his record running 15:49 and he’s only a junior so he has another year to keep lowering his school record and work toward a top ten finish at next year’s state championship.” said Berrio.

Coach Saul Laird wanted to make sure Berrio was well prepared throughout his practices so he could prevent any injuries for the championships. “We prepared Alejandro to break the record by first keeping him healthy, making sure he was rolling out his muscles, stretching and icing for injury prevention. His workouts were tailored to build increasingly longer distance intervals with shorter rest periods. At the end of the season we tapered his mileage down and introduced more speed work.” Laird said.

In the near future, Berrio and his coaches had decided to put him in a higher level than the rest of the team next year in 2023-2024 because of his biggest improvements and him beating these records. “Next year we will be bringing Alejandro to some big races against top level competition in the state. Since he will be at a different level from the rest of the team, we may need to split up and send the rest of the team to different meets. He will be competing this weekend in Alabama at a meet with top national competition sponsored by Garmin. We are hoping this will prepare him for top competition nationally next year.”said assistant coach Anthony O’Neil.