Darlene Partida is in her third season as a member of the Poets cross country team. She was born in Los Angeles, CA. She started running when she was in middle school because she was always picked to race the annual cross country race in her middle school. She went on to run for South Gate High School where she earned cross country state meet finisher, LA city finals top 10 finisher, league champion, and second mile and first mile league champion. She is majoring in Social Work and hopes to some day work as a social worker or maybe family law. She credits her success to her mom, dad, teachers, and coaches.