Mykenna Zarate will board an airplane for the first time Thursday, but it won’t be for a vacation. Zarate will head to Richmond, Virginia, for Saturday’s National Junior College Athletic Association Division I cross country championship. “I am a little nervous,” Zarate said.
“But I think it’s going to be a good opportunity to help the program.” Zarate competed in cross country in high school at Edna where she was a two-time regional qualifier. She decided to continue the sport during her freshman year at Victoria College, where she is the only female member of the team.
“I had already done it in high school and I wanted to have a lot of opportunities in college as well,” Zarate said. “I wanted to improve myself in the sport because I really love it.” Zarate has competed in meets at Rice in Houston and Trinity in San Antonio.
She runs six days a week and usually goes from 8-10 miles a week. Victoria College coach Rudy Rocha is proud of the progress Zarate has made. “It’s a big transition from high school to college,” Rocha said.
“But she has a good work ethic and anything I ask her to do in practice, she does. She’s very coachable and that’s very important.” Rocha will compete on a 5-kilometer course at Pole Green Park at the national meet, which is shorter than the courses she has run on this season.
“I think it will help me,” she said. “I just want to go out there and compete as hard as I can.”.