Cota concedes the award was a surprise.

“I wasn’t really expecting that,” Cota said. “It was a shock. It’s an honor.”

Lyons admits that he, too, was not quite expecting his new runners to end up at the top of the leader board.

“We thought they would be up there,” Lyons said. “I didn’t know that they would run as fast as they did.”

The cross country program has been steadily improving during Lyons’s seven-year tenure as coach. Lyons sees the quality of the returning players as a key to bringing in recruits like Rodriguez and Cota.

“All these new folks contacted us and looked at our school. I think that’s a credit to our current team, our returners,” Lyons said. “As we get better, the recruits that we attract are better.”

Both Rodriguez and Cota were eager to credit the tight team chemistry of the veteran runners in helping them achieve their early success.

“In my recent junior college and high school teams, I didn’t have that real team integration,” Rodriguez said. “I get here and its unexplainable. I’ve never had it before.”

Rodriguez believes that having new team members compete at a high level is good for everyone going forward.

“It keeps the vets on their toes to have new guys coming in,” Rodriguez said. “(The new runners) want to catch these guys and beat these guys.”

The team will face tougher challenges as the season progresses, starting with next week’s highly competitive Sundodger Invitational in Seattle, Wash.

Lyons sees his new runners’ early success as good sign for things to come.

“Running is great because you can just continually improve,” Lyons said. “The older you get, the more you do. It’s a great place to start.”