Eagles set to fly in flock

Charlie Appell will first focus on off-the-course issues with his Estancia High girls’ cross country team before he can plan out running strategies. He knows for his team to compete well at meets the Eagles have to be one group, not fractured cliques.

Without a stand alone runner the task will be all the more difficult.

“There’s no leader as of yet,” said Appell, who is entering his 17th year as the head coach. “There’s a group. For them it has to be about more buddy-buddy stuff. You create enemies it takes a long time to undo. They have to learn to bond. So far there is good cohesion with the girls.”

The Eagles do return two solid runners from last season’s team which advanced — via a third-place finish at the league meet — to the CIF Southern Section Division III preliminaries for the first time since 2000. Senior Sydney Barloon, a two-time all-league runner, and junior Paula Negrete, who is in her third year on the varsity and was all-league last season, return to take the top two spots.

Barloon and Negrete were third and sixth, respectively, at the Golden West League meet last year.

“Sydney is a good front-runner,” Appell said.

Like other members of the Eagles team who participated in track and field, Negrete had to deal with nagging injuries that hampered her.

“It’s just going to be important to keep healthy,” Appell said. “They have to learn to do more stretching and take care of first aid. They don’t know what pain is, but they’re coping much better than they did last year.”

Also returning from last year’s team are juniors Magali Onofre and Karina Rios.

Junior Eunice Rodriguez was injured last year but is expected to complete the top five with Onofre and Rios.

“We never had the depth [other schools] do,” Appell said.

Sophomore Sindey Ramirez returns from last season’s team and Jenny Leon is in her second year running cross country.

Sophomores Blanca Morales and Alexa Aguilar will also compete for spots.

“They have to learn to handle constructive criticism of themselves,” Appell said. “If someone says this must be done this way, take it not as a threat but something to learn from. They are trying to prove themselves, but they are afraid of criticism.”

When the end of the season begins to loom, Appell is aiming to have his team in the thick of the competition.

“We want to qualify for CIF,” Appell said. “An ulterior motive is to make it to state. They need to get ranked if they don’t finish second [in league]. It will be a big help.”

Appell does not expect any injuries along the way to divert the team.

“We should be able to get past them,” he said.

As for how good the Eagles team can be, Appell said: “I’ll tell you that in a couple of weeks.”

Estancia opens the season Sept. 9 at the Laguna Hills Invitational.

The team has created a website, with the help of Appell’s daughter Carrie, which is dedicated to the Eagles’ cross country program. The site, estanciaxc.com, features message-board style comments, player information and photographs.

“We always have a wonderful group of kids,” Appell said.