Cross Country is a very difficult sport. It takes someone very determined to stick with this sport through the highs and lows that it brings. Through the pressure of her self expectations and her teammates’ support, Redlands East Valley senior Samantha Aguilar has endured through the worst and has come up on top.

Aguilar currently dominates in her Varsity division and never stops working to improve her spectacularly impressive times. She is a role model and inspiration to many new cross country runners. For several she has impacted them personally on many levels. Freshman Caitlin Miller said, “Sam motivates the entire team and inspires me to work harder so I can get a better time.” She also added, “Sam is a very good role model and she helps keep the team together.”

Unfortunately Aguilar has suffered from an injury this season. “It made everyone else step up their game because we didn’t have our number one runner.’’ Miller said. All participants in cross country are anxiously hoping that she has a quick recovery and is able to take part in some part of this season. Luckily she has recently been able to start practicing with the team again. She has been nursing the injury extremely well and everyone is in hope that she will be 100% for upcoming races. She is an influential person both on the course and on campus.

Aguilar holds the school record for the mile and two mile races at Redlands East Valley High School. She has also had the opportunity to compete at the national level in the Junior Olympics, hosted annually by the United States Track and Field Association.

Aguilar has improved her personal times each year. As a freshman, her personal record was 17:49 followed by 17:36 as a sophomore for the three-mile race. In her junior year, she ran her best at 17:20 and is aspiring to break  17 minutes in her senior year at REV.

She has been extremely successful in her years in high school and is looking forward to improving even more in college. Aguilar did not fall short in having options for college and has narrowed down her aspirations to University of Southern California, Pepperdine, Azusa Pacific, Academy of Arts and Cal Poly Pomona.