As the cross country season sneaks closer, the team is looking to build on last year’s season after reaching second place in Central Coast Section (CCS) championships.

Last season, the boys were able to clinch a spot in the state finals. This year, they look to “return stronger than ever and claim the top spot,” according to senior captain Sam Craig.

However, reaching such heights this year could be difficult as they lost five influential seniors that provided great leadership.

Nonetheless, junior Henry Saul, Palo Alto’s second fastest runner in cross country last year, looks to lead the Vikings to a glorious season filled with triumph.

Other runners, such as junior Alex Evans have been training hard over the summer to help the team reach their full potential. Evans, who spent the summer with his friends and family, kept his discipline and didn’t stop his daily routine of waking up in the morning to go on his typical two-mile run, to keep his cardiovascular system in shape.

Evans also mentioned that cross country dedicates time to have runners maintain a strong core and work on other muscles in the body to maintain a good balance.

“I think each muscle in the body, especially the core plays a major key in being able to keep up with your competitors because in order to be a top runner every pet of your body needs to have strength,” Evans said.

Many cross-country runners say they will become more agile with the help of the newly-built gym, which will aid them in keeping a steady advantage over opponents. Improvement is expected to show.

Palo Alto’s first official meet is an invitational on September 16th at Monterey, where they will be lead by captains Sam Craig (‘18), Reed Foster (‘18) and John Tayeri (‘19).

Palo Alto’s cross-country runners take responsibility to the hard work and dedication needed to be made in order to find themselves in the same position as last year so that they can capitalize.

With a fairly young group of athletic, hungry and courageous runners, Palo Alto can’t be counted out and hopes to come back with a first place trophy.

“This season I am looking forward to making states with my team,” Saul said. “It will be more challenging this year with senior departures, but we think we can pull it off.”

The team is currently training hard for their next meet.