Running to the Top: A Profile on Cross Country Athlete Santiago Pereira
By Judson Harris
The runners are lined up, waiting for the signal to start. Among the many runners stands Santiago Pereira, a sophomore at Jenks High School. His bib pinned to his shirt, he stands poised to outrun his competition.
Pereira has been doing cross country for a long time before joining the Jenks Boys Cross Country team as a freshman.
“This is gonna be my eighth year,” said Pereira. His love of running has been around for as long as he could remember. He just needed an outlet to express that love.
“As a kid, I would, just for fun, run up and down a sidewalk we had in our neighborhood,” said Pereira. “Then a neighbor at the time, she was like ‘Hey, you know, I think you should do cross country.’”
Pereira running in this season’s regional race.
This happened around when he was in first grade, but Pereira elected to keep the idea in the back of his mind. He devoted his time to playing soccer instead.
“I didn’t really mind it,” said Pereira, “but then around third grade I started realizing soccer wasn’t my thing. I thought, ‘I’m just gonna give it a shot and see how it goes.’ And I did.” That’s when he took the plunge.
From there he took off. Cross country, often abbreviated to XC, catered pretty well to Pereira’s love for running. A typical meet consists of a 5k race, where the runners try to both place highly and set a new personal record for themselves.
The Jenks High School XC coach, Joe Dial, was impressed immediately when Santiago showed up as a freshman last year.
“When I saw him his freshman year, I knew there was something special about him,” said Dial.
During his time at Jenks High School, he’s seen some pretty solid improvement.
Pereira running in the Holland Hall XC meet.
“That’s what you look for in an athlete,” said Dial. “Someone who steadily improves and isn’t just a one shot wonder kind of guy, you know?”
Last year, Pereira got 30th overall in the national race with the Jenks America Track Club. Even so, he’s still eager to do better. He continues to push himself to be the best runner he can be. He’s expressed a huge interest in setting new personal records.
“I got this thought like ‘Okay. I’m still young. What more can I do?’” said Pereira.
Pereira setting a new personal record of 16:20 in the season’s state race.
“His work ethic is incredible,” said Dial. Pereira trains both in and outside of school. Along with the regular training he does with the team during the summer and during the main season, he also trains with various other clubs like the Jenks America Track Club.
As of November 18 at the XC season’s end, the Jenks America Track Club got third overall in their national race, and as an individual Santiago got 12th overall with a time of 16:12, setting yet another personal record.
