Boys’ cross country team prepares for state meet

Flashback to three years ago: Then-freshman Steven Sum stood behind the starting line of the state cross country meet, the first large-scale race he had ever attended. He looked around him, starry-eyed. There were around 300 other runners, each one of them with top-notch times.

In contrast, despite his natural ability in the sport, he was only slightly prepared, unsure and nervous. The only thing that he thought about was what his coach had told him to do, and he had no other stable thoughts to ease his nerves.

Last Saturday, as a senior and a co-captain of the boys’ cross country team, Sum won the individual champion title in the Division 3 CCS meet with his time of 15:21 over the 3.2-mile course at Toro Park.

Sum also led the Falcons’ varsity team to a second-place finish as a whole, qualifying them for the state meet in Clovis on Nov. 29. Besides Sum, this team includes his brother,  sophomore Nicholas Sum, juniors Kevin Duong-le, Stephen Law and Matthew Peterson and seniors and fellow co-captains Andrew Harter and Rohith Krishna.

“A lot of the team actually didn't run as well as they could have, so we were worried whether we were actually going to qualify for states, but it was a huge relief when we heard that we placed second as a team,” Harter said.

The boys’ cross country team has not gone to state since Sum’s freshman year. For the past two years, the team has finished in fourth place at CCS, just one place short of qualification to states.

In anticipation for the state meet this year, the 7-member team trained more than they did previously. The previous summer, only Sum continued to run; this summer all members of the varsity team ran up to nine miles per day.

During the season, the team also went on distance runs four or five days a week for around seven or eight miles, as well as interval workouts on the track and upper-body building in the weight room two times per week.

“The workouts get our heart rates up and to the speed we'll need to win races,” Law said. “After the long summer of just distance runs, I wouldn’t have been able to hit the times I can now without any [additional] training.”

The team was confident about going to states this year because they had been consistently doing well in league meets. In the final league meet at the notoriously hilly Crystal Springs on Nov. 4, the team experienced tremendous success — all top seven runners, who are expected to go to states, ran personal records. Three new members also joined a select group of runners who ran under 17 minutes for the tough 3-mile race.

“I think the hard training schedule this year definitely paid off because our top seven guys got the fastest overall team time at Leagues and possibly even at CCS in [Saratoga Cross Country] history,” Harter said.

Sum said that in previous years, although the team had similarly good runners, they trained for speed too early in the season and therefore peaked in the middle of the season rather than for the state meet at the end.

He added that the team experienced unexpected events during CCS last year. Sum himself did not have a great race, the team’s second runner almost passed out in the middle of the race and some other runners felt slightly sick.

“I think I got too nervous last year,” Sum said. “But this year, I have a different feeling. I don’t really care [what the results are] — I’m just going to go out there and see what I can do.”

Sum and the other seniors on the team have led the rest of the team to have a self-improving attitude.

“I sort of see the traits of amazing runners in all three of the captains,” Law said. “[Senior captains Rohith Krishna and Andrew Harter] are living proof to me that you don’t have to start out fast to be fast. Hard work makes fast runners, not natural talent.”

As the state meet is approaching, team members have also become closer to each other.

“Before freshman year, we didn’t necessarily all run together,” Sum said. “But now we’re always running together; a lot of the guys on the cross country became my best friends. I think running together and working out together [has] made us all better because we learn how to run as a team, [which is] really important if we want to qualify [for states.]”

No matter what, the team looks forward to states.

“This year feels good,” Sum said. “We’re in a good spot.”