Heading into the last few meets of the season, the cross country teams are taking pride in placing first in every race the City Championship in Arastradero on Oct. 30.
The SCVAL Championships at Crystal Springs were on Nov 5, which junior Alex Selwyn said it was a privilege to have the opportunity to race on such a beautiful course.
“This will be the last race of the season for most folks,” Selwyn said. “Varsity has the chance to qualify to CCS, and that’s what we hope to do.”
Selwyn said the team is focused on finishing strong for the last couple of weeks.
“In any race, it’s critical that you can quickly accelerate and change gears toward the end of the race,” Selwyn said. “The idea behind the workouts we do is that at the end of the race, even though your body is tired, it has the ability to change gears and accelerate.”
Although most of the teams have done well, senior captain Ian Mathison said the varsity boys had some troubles at the beginning of the season. Mathison said he has taken up a bigger leadership role this year and has noticed a few difficulties the team has faced in the past few weeks.
“Our first two meets were really bad, but we performed much better at Crystal (Springs),” Mathison said. “The other teams are doing super well, as they have won the majority, if not all, of their races.”
Senior Ryan Park also said the varsity boys struggled with injuries. Park said five of the 10 varsity boys have had injuries at some point.
“I’m personally facing severe shin splints going into the postseason,” Park said. “Not sure why we’ve had so many injuries, but that’s how it’s been.”
Park said the team will face some serious competition from Lynbrook and Los Altos in the CCS championships. However, Park said he sees the season as successful, especially with the new underclassmen.
“To make states, we’ll have to run incredibly well and be cleared of injury, but I’m optimistic,” Park said. “Speaking for the varsity runners, our penultimate goal is to make it to states for XC as a team. To do this, I think we have to place in the top two as a team at CCS (championships).”
