OTHELLO — Setting a realistic team goal is one of the tools coaches will utilize to maximize performance.

Othello cross country coach J.J. Martinez says qualifying for the 2A state meet is a reasonable goal for his boys team.

“I believe we can get some of them to the state tournament,” Martinez said. “We just missed state with the boys team last year.”

A cross country team needs five solid runners to be competitive. Othello returns two quality veteran runners in Ulises Neponuceno and Chris Melo. Neponuceno ran a 51.73 400 meter time to qualify for the state 2A track meet.

“He is a fast runner who just missed qualifying for state cross-country last year and did qualify for track state,” Martinez said. “I am looking for him to be really improved.”

Melo is a second year runner who Martinez said really improved in his first year.

Other boys who will compete to make the top five are Jessie Gonzalez and Jerry Mendez.

“Jessie trains pretty hard for track season, and he came back out for cross country after turning out for football last year,” Martinez said. “He was a work horse his freshman year so he is going to be right in the mix. Jerry Mendez will also help.”

Martinez expects to get a boost from the incoming freshmen class. One of the early freshman competitors already impressing the coaching staff is David Maldonado.

“David is probably going to be our number-one or -two runner this year,” Martinez said. “We have three solid runners and a couple of newcomers, juniors and seniors, who are looking pretty impressive after just two days of practice.”

The Huskie girls are a different matter. They have no returning varsity runners, but a few newcomers have already shown some promise.

“Lori Gomez, a track star, is showing good leadership as one of our captains,” Martinez said. “Grace Goddard, an incoming freshman, ran for Mount Vernon as an elementary student and attended some cross country camps. You can see in day two she has great form and she is going to be right up there.”

After the first day of school on Thursday, Brissa Valenciano showed up for practice and was running even with Gomez and Goddard when the team practiced running up the hill at the Old Dog Pound at Edson Tracts.