Coarse gravel crunches under the sneakers of athletes as the dedicated runners train to live up to their expectations as the top team in the city.

Led by long distance head coach Andy Leong, who has coached the Cardinals for 24 years, and sprinter head coach Charles Hatch, who has coached the team for 9 years, as well as assistant coaches Miguel Mallorca, Sean Gwi and Thomas Tran, the Cardinals continue to improve. “Andy gives us workouts and helps us track our progress and figure out how to improve,” freshman long distance runner Kathleen Kanaley said. “He inspires me by always encouraging me to do my personal best no matter what.”

This year, the team continues to place well in meets across the city and in the region; many athletes are placing in the top 10 on Dyestat Cal, an organization that documents “high school sports rankings, results, training, performance and college recruiting” (www.rise.espn.go.com). Dyestat Cal reports several Lowell runners as among the “California Northern, San Francisco and Oakland Section Elite Top 10” in multiple events. The top 10 results were based on the top 10 times in a given event from all of the individuals (The Web site depends on coaches submitting scores to keep the Web site updated.)

So far, the team has run at a total of 14 events and traveled as far away as Modesto for an invitational on March 26. At the invitational, junior sprinter and thrower Melanie Speech placed first in the varsity girls’ shot put, second in the 100-meter dash and third in the long jump. Senior sprinter Katherine Gao got first place in the varsity 100-meter hurdles and second in the varsity high jump. Among the boys, junior distance runner William Chen won second in the varsity boys’ 800-meter run and third in the 1600-meter run, while senior distance runner Leo Harrington placed first.

At the Big Cat Invitational held on March 5 at Santa Rosa High School Harrington placed third in the men’s 1600-meter event, having run 4:28.47. Harrington also ranks third in the men’s 3200-meter event, in which he ran 9:46.65 at the K-Bell Invitational on March 12 at Los Gatos High School.

Among the women’s events, Speech ranks first in the women’s shot put and first in the 200-meter event, second in the 100-meter event, second in the women’s long jump and first in the long jump among the wind-aided, an event in which the wind is taken into account.

However, even with these powerful runners, the Cardinals still have to watch out for the competition that awaits them. “Lincoln is our biggest competitor, although Washington is up and coming,” Leong said. “They have some young athletes who have gotten my attention and I should not discount them.”

Leong says that his goal for the team is “being the best we can be, which means winning All-City championships.”

Come support the Cards at 3:30 p.m. on May 4 as they take on the Mustangs at McAteer field at SOTA.

A version of this article first appeared in the April 29, 2011 print edition of the The Lowell.