The high school boys and girls cross country season began Aug. 26 at schools across the state.

West Valley Preps and the Glendale Independent and Peoria Independent asked local high school coaches about their teams. Here are their responses.

Cactus Cobras

Boys Coach: Rich Levan (ninth year as Cactus head coach)
Girls Coach: Sandy Black (first year as Cactus head coach)
Section: Division III Metro
Who are your top returning runners? Top returning boys are senior Andrew Martinez, juniors Hunter Black, Trenton Carpenter and Ramon Carrillo, and sophomore Tim Boggler. Top girls are juniors Sophia Orozco and Haley Reyes.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? For the boys, Landen Faulk and for the girls, Isabella Jordan.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? I would say the closeness of the team. They are very encouraging of each other, especially encouraging and helping the new runners. We have seven freshmen and first time runners.
What are the primary team and individual goals for this year’s team? We would like to have both the boys and girls teams qualify for state. It has been 10 years since the girls team has qualified. Individually, looking to maybe have four or five total medals at sectionals.

Centennial Coyotes

Boys and girls coach: Steve Ybarra (ninth year as Centennial head coach)
Section: Division II Metro
Who are your top returning runners? Boys - Samuel Duran Jr. (second year with the program) is the top returning boy from last year. Girls - Junior Jesline Avila (second year) is the top returning girl and was the only girl to qualify for state. Senior Cheyanna Sassaman (fourth year) and junior Charlotte Greer (third year).
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Boys: Freshman Rhys Kegler ran the fastest time on our team for our first meet. He joined us late in the summer and excited to see how well he improves. Freshman Bennett Russell. In his first meet, he ran a time that would have been third for our team last year. Lots of potential in this kid. Girls: Junior Paizlie Robertson, moved here from Virginia this summer. Definitely has potential to be a state qualifier individually.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Great kids and great attitudes. They work hard to improve every day and appreciate high expectations placed on them. They get along as a group as well which creates a very positive and encouraging environment.
What are the primary team and individual goals for this year’s team? Team goals every year are to: Place as high as a team in our district meet. Qualify for state as a team. Place as high as possible as a team for state. Individual goals are the same except if we don’t qualify as a team, we try to get as many individuals qualified to compete at state. Boys: We do not have any state qualifying returners from last year on the boys side, but Samuel is looking to make a big jump and if Bennett and Rhys keep improving, we may have a three individual qualifiers from our team if we do not qualify as a team. Girls: Jesline looks to improve upon her first season of cross country as an individual qualifier and Paizlie looks to bounce back from an injury filled sophomore year to qualify as well. The two have similar 5k PR times so the two of them working together will be very beneficial for both of them.

Deer Valley Skyhawks

Boys and girls coach: Kevin Riegle (eighth year as Deer Valley head coach)
Section: Division II Metro (Boys finished sixth in Division II, Girls finished 14th)
Who are your top returning runners? On the boys side, junior Daequan Tigue is our top returner. Seniors Aukai Fletcher normally comes in at No. 2 and Ezra Zufelt at No. 3. Senior Teagan Theall will lead the charge on the girls side. She is a two-time sectional champion and senior Carrie Baughman has looked good in the early parts of the year.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Aiden Hernandez on the buys side is a freshman that has come in looking strong. On the girls side newcomer sophomore Elisabeth Reynolds and Freshman Maci Blanchard look to crack the top five on the team this season.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We have a lot of great kids on the team. Thus far they have been great workers and they are fun to be around.
What are the primary team and individual goals for this year’s team? Our goal as a team is to repeat as sectional champions on both the boys and the girls teams and then follow up with a strong showing at state. Teagan Theall has the opportunity to three-peat as sectional champion and Daequan Tigue aims to crack the top four at the state meet and make a run for his first individual sectional championship.

Glendale Prep Griffins

Boys and girls coach: Eric Webdale (10th year at Glendale Prep)
Section: Division IV Metro (Boys won Division IV state title, girls finished fifth)
Who are your top returning runners? Girls: Adi Gameros, Sydney Lester and Carolyn Reeves form the core of our returning runners. Boys: We’re returning our top seven runners from last year’s state championship team.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Girls: We have two freshmen I’m especially excited about. Maycee Brady has the potential to be our top runner, and Natalie Leuschner — new to running — has already been a pleasant surprise. Boys: Rafi Gameros, David Honeycutt, and Zander Rich all have the potential to compete for a varsity spot.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? The girls have an incredible ability to make the team feel like a family. Their support for each other motivates them to accomplish great things. Our boys’ greatest strength is how hard the athletes push each other to improve. Our top five runners have personal bests within 40 seconds of each other, and that pack mentality creates a highly competitive environment.
What are the primary team and individual goals for this year’s team? Our girls’ main goal is to improve on last year’s 5th-place finish. With such a young team, we’re also focused on continued development for future success. Our boys’ primary goal is to stay healthy and defend last year’s state championship.

Liberty Lions

Boys Coach: David Ostrus (10th year as Liberty head coach)
Girls Coach: Rebekah Ostrus (second year as Liberty girls head coach)

Section: Division I Southwest (Boys finished fifth in Division I, Girls placed 11th)
Who are your top returning runners? Boys: Kyan Spence (sophomore), Daniel Edwards (junior) and a whole host of seniors: Jack Allred, Christian Garcia, Sam Hart, Donovan Cross, Duncan Cross, Caleb Kritenbrink and Zach Ostrus. Girls: I have one senior, Madeleine Malloy, and my top runner, Kaidence Koester, who is a junior. I only lost one runner who graduated last year so our team is strong.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Boys: Freshmen Elijah Lipata, Alex Gonzalez and Ethan Smith. Girls: Abrielle Belliveau, freshman, finished in the top 10 right behind Madeleine Malloy at the No Po invite a week and a half ago. She is going to have a phenomenal career.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Boys: Right now the best thing we have going is the tremendous growth of our top runners (primarily during track season) and the consistency in the team’s summer training has allowed the gap between our No. 1 and our No. 7 runner to be the smallest that we have had in years. Our pack mentality is definitely our strength this year. Girls: They are a cohesive team. They push each other to be their best and enjoy running together and competing.
What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Boys: Team goals right now are fairly lofty — at a minimum the boys have made winning the Division 1 Southwest Section a non-negotiable. Individually we have a few athletes that want to place all-state and then build on this season to hopefully qualify for big meets like Arcadia during track season. Girls: We want to finish top three at sectionals and want a top 10 finish at state. Kaidence has the capability to finish top three this season if she can stay healthy. Excited to see what Abrielle will do this season.

Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions

Boys coach: Mitchell Moses (eighth year at Mountain Ridge)
Section: Division I Northeast (Boys placed 11th in Divisionn I)
Who are your top returning runners? Our top returning runners for our boys team are Collin Foley, Alex Crotty, Jake Olson and Eric Reed. Our top returning runners for our girls team are Sydney McCracken, Sadie Jensen, Katy Durell and Shea Kalama.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Our new impact runner for our boys team is Jakob Burke. He adds a needed and strong top five for our boys team. Our new impact runners for our girls team are Mia Torrez and Emma Langer. They bring a lot of energy, focus and dedication to our girls team.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? One of our team’s biggest attribute entering this season is the depth on our boys team and how hard they work to get better every day. They are super consistent and they do everything together. Our girls team loves to compete and they push each other every day in practice which will pay dividends when it comes to the big meets at the end of the year.
What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Our biggest goal as a team is to be disciplined and consistent in the way we train every day and then go and compete.

Sunrise Mountain Mustangs

Boys Coach: Torrin Lattie (29th year as Sunrise Mountain head coach)
Section: Division II Northwest (Girls finished 13th in Division II)
Who are your top returning runners? Senior Andrew Fastrup - fourth in state as a sophomore. Third in state as a junior. Track Division II 1600-meter state champ and 3200-meter state champ as a junior. A15:14 PR for 5k. Sophomores Mason Hernandez and Boris Rabinovich.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Freshman Colt Taylor.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Leadership: Andrew Fastrup leads by example. Youth: Most of team is freshmen and sophomores.
What are the primary team and individual goals for this year’s team? Andrew Fastrup running under 15:00 and having a shot to win state. Steady improvement and qualifying for state as a team.