Two laps around the track, comprising 800 meters of racing. Often considered one of the hardest distances to race, placed between outright sprinting and strategizing on spending energy, “the eight” — as distance runners call it — is bound to leave anyone who races it in intense pain and agony, gasping for life-giving oxygen. Yet, on one April afternoon at a track meet at Ayala High School in 2021, that lack of O2 (and pain from the subsequent lactic acid fermentation) was not enough to stop a lifelong friendship between Angelina Diaz and Evan Edwards from sparking into place — or, well, pace.
Despite not getting to know each other during their freshman year’s cross-country season, held with masks and social distancing, Diaz and Edwards struck up an instant connection after both running outstanding times in the 800 come spring. Amongst desperate gasps of breath lasted wheezes of laughter — that same laughter echoed three years later when the two recalled the memory of the first moment of their friendship.
“We were dying because we could barely breathe,” Edwards said. “This one lady even got mad at us, saying something like ‘Why aren’t you helping the team clean up?!’ but we were wheezing and coughing — couldn’t breathe, but we were laughing about it.”
Laughter bringing the two together years ago, Diaz and Edwards intend on laughing with each other into a future at California Lutheran University. Both committed to running for the university’s Division III cross-country team and are intending on rooming together in the fall. Both Diaz and Edwards chose the school for the experiences it could offer, from being able to pursue their faith more deeply to being involved in its arts and science programs.
Spending hours upon hours running hundreds of miles and weeks gardening plants, along with her eight years of playing violin in the school orchestra, Diaz plans to major in biology and minor in music with the goal of becoming a marine or wildlife biologist.
“I want to try to save species from the destruction we’re causing,” Diaz said. “I know it sounds really cliche, but I want to be part of a future where we help the environment.”
Both Diaz and Edwards plan on having futures related to biology, inspired by childhood memories. While Diaz mentioned trips to the mountains that sparked her interest in ecology and zoology, Edwards described how early experiences with genes and mutations — specifically snakes at home — encouraged her to pursue molecular biology in the future to hopefully become a geneticist in the medical field.
While studying molecular biology, Edwards also hopes to take advantage of the university’s darkroom to further her passion for photography. Having taken AP Photography her junior year, Edwards is excited to explore it in college, considering minoring in the subject.
At the end of the day, what brought Edwards and Diaz together was running — and they would like to shout out the cross-country team for being such an amazing and supportive family, in particular being extremely proud of Triana for improving so much.
“It feels like another family that I really love,” Diaz said. “So it’s going to be hard to leave that when I go to college.”
While both are excited about the adventures college holds, they wish to leave some advice.
“Find something you’re really passionate about, and stick with it,” Edwards said.
“Have fun,” Diaz said. “It’s generic, but as long as you keep up your studies and don’t be afraid to push yourself, you’ll remember those memories the most.”
From running in the Cross Country team in CHS to the one at Cal Lutheran, from hanging out together in Claremont to rooming together in college, and from dying of pain due to lack of oxygen to dying of laughter due to jokes told, one can only see how Diaz and Edwards’ friendship will endure from here on out.