Paso Robles cross country runner Trad Berti peaks with help of teammates

Paso Robles High School cross country runner Luis Armendariz trains with Trad Berti nearly every day. But even he was surprised by Berti’s performance at last weekend’s Stanford Invitational.

Berti, a senior, turned in a personal-best time of 14 minutes 57 seconds to win the the 5,000-meter Division 3 race on the Stanford University Golf Course, beating his time from last year’s race by 52 seconds.

“Together in our workouts, we were pretty close together,” Armendariz, a fellow senior, said. “To see him be that far in front in the race it was like, ‘Oh, where did this come from?’ ”

Paso Robles cross country coach Ivan Huff knew Berti had been training well leading up to the race.

“And I thought he would run well at Stanford, but that was an outstanding time,” Huff said. “Everything was clicking.”

Berti was wearing the shirt from the event at practice Thursday and feeling good about his performance.

“I was training for like a 15:20, trying to beat (Armendariz’s) time from last year, and I ended up just running my race,” Berti said.

Armendariz finished in second place with a time of 15:29.

“Luis is kind of comparing himself to Trad because they train all the time together, and Luis was just a little bit down on himself,” Huff said. “I said, ‘Luis, you ran great. You ran fantastic.’ I think he realizes that, but he always wants to be with Trad.”

It’s that kind of internal competition that has helped the Paso Robles cross country team be so successful recently. Coming off a season in which the team ended up second in the Division 3 CIF-Southern Section 5,000-meter finals and third in the Division 3 state finals, Paso Robles has another strong team led by Armendariz, Berti and sophomore Pablo Cortes. All three runners finished in the top 7 at the Stanford Invitational and helped Paso Robles tie for first place overall. A tiebreaker led to a second-place finish.

“Cross country is a team sport, but you take everyone's individual effort,” Huff said. “You want the guys on the team pushing each other, being competitive with each other.”

Berti said that’s what helped him record such a strong time at Stanford.

“(Armendariz) has helped a lot,” Berti said. “If I were to do the workouts by myself, I don’t know if I would be able to do the pace right. I would probably be doing it much slower.”

Both Berti and Armendariz have been talking to Cal Poly and other schools about potential scholarships next year. Despite the success of Paso Robles’ top two, Huff said he will continue to emphasize the “team aspect” as the Bearcats work toward their fourth-straight county championship. Next up is the Clovis Invational on Saturday at Woodward Park.

“We have had individuals go to the state me by themselves,” Huff said. “Those are great accomplishments, and it’s fun, but it’s a lot more fun to travel with your team and to be there with your team.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Paso Robles cross country runner Trad Berti peaks with help of teammates."