Girls’ XC takes big strides in season, but won’t go to state this year

At the CCS meet on Nov. 10 at Toro Park, the girls’ cross country team finished sixth out of 13 teams in Division 3, in which Aptos won first place. Because the Falcons did not place in the top three, however, it did not make it to the state meet.

The athletes who ran at CCS included seniors Maya Nag, Caroline Chou, Courtney Schlossareck and Suzannah Osekowsky, along with sophomores Carolyn Qi, Valerie Lensch and Christine Schlossareck. The three alternates who trained with them were freshman Amanda Duong-Le, senior Maggy Liu and sophomore Michelle Luo.

These runners were chosen by taking the 10 fastest times from the two Crystal Springs meets on Oct. 9 and Oct. 30 and the Baylands meet on Oct. 16. As the only freshman to compete at CCS, Duong-Le was thrilled by how the season turned out.

“I wasn’t aiming to get into CCS,” Duong-Le said, “but it was shocking to be able to make it.”

Although none of the athletes made it to state individually, Lensch, Qi and Chou achieved personal records on the 3-mile course. Schlossareck said the team ended the season with a great performance at CCS.

“It was a good race to end cross country with,” Schlossareck said. “Everyone used their magic really well on the last sprint and Coach [Danny Moon] was really proud of how everyone ran!”

At the end of the season, the cross country girls looked back to their first few races, finding immense improvement in their times and performances at meets.

The girls ran their last meet together in the league meet on Oct. 30 at Crystal Springs, a 2.95-mile course that they ran for the second time this season.

Of the eight schools in the De Anza League, the frosh-soph team placed first, the JV team finished fifth and the varsity team came in fourth. Overall, 16 out of the 44 athletes who ran the meet achieved personal records.

Moon said he was proud of the girls to have accumulated so many personal records over the season, adding that personal records are bonuses to the achievement of completing the races.

“When [the athletes] get a personal record, it’s just like putting frosting on the cake,” Moon said. “But to complete the races and do their very best at each race is the main focus.”

Although several athletes have improved individually, Moon said the team did not place that high at the league meet because the team was a third division team competing against first and second division teams.

“We’re the only Division 3 team in our league,” Moon said. “The division is decided by the number of students that attend the school, so they have bigger teams [and] more people to pull from. That’s what the difference is.”

In addition to the league meet, many girls improved considerably at the second Lynbrook meet on Oct. 25, where a whopping 29 athletes achieved personal records. Senior captain Courtney Schlossareck said this was a huge accomplishment for the team.

“Almost every runner had a personal record, which is amazing and way better than we have had in the past,” Schlossareck said. “It's really great to see that all the hard work and training everyone puts in over the season pays off and that they really do improve.”

However, because of injuries, only 37 of the 59 athletes on the team competed at the second Lynbrook meet.

Despite all the injuries, for many who joined the team this year, the atmosphere of cross country and the exposure to the sport have been a great experience.

“Being surrounded by my friends, an encouraging coach and supporting team members had really made my experience at cross country wonderful,” Duong-Le said.