Championship season takes on a different definition and expectation for a program like that at Temecula Great Oak.
The Wolfpack under coach Doug Soles have been the dominant program in the largest division in California and have been on the national map for the better part of the past decade.
Last Saturday on the flat three-mile Riverside City Championship Course, Soles' girls won their sixth consecutive Southern Section Division 1 title and eighth in nine years. His boys won the CIF-SS D1 title for the third consecutive year.
This Saturday, Great Oak goes for a sixth consecutive CIF State title and seventh in eight years on the girls side, and fourth straight California crown on the boys side.
Winning State titles is the target with the payoff a trip to the Nike Cross National (NXN) championships in Portland.
Sandra Pflughoft, who will compete in her fourth consecutive CIF State Championship on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, is well versed in the Great Oak legacy, tradition ... and expectations.
"I am used to from my past three years of winning and being on the line for a State championship and I have an understanding that it's practically in our DNA for working out that we're working out to get to the end goal of winning state and going to NXN," she said earlier this week in an interview on campus. "We're used to having the understanding that every other race is a bonus but not as important as going to State and winning it and going to NXN."