Head Coach: boys: Ian Tippetts, girls: Amanda Follmar
Star Runners:
Boys:
- Junior Jack Dong
- Junior Jack Tong
- Junior Vedant Padhi
Girls:
- Freshman Claire Hou
- Freshman Sadie McBeth
- Senior Anisha Rahut
Key losses to graduation: Neil Miller, Jacob Merill
Division: El Camino
As the cross country season approaches, runners are preparing for their first full-team meet on Sept. 24 at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. The top 10 runners on both the girls’ and boys’ teams begin their meet season earlier and are preparing for a Sept. 7. Invitational at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
This year, the girls’ team is coached by Amanda Follmar, the sister-in-law of Alicia Follmar, Class of ‘05; Alicia Follmar broke several school records and even won the state meet before becoming an All American runner for the Stanford cross country team.
A professional runner herself, Amanda Follmar was also the coach of the cross country team at Redwood Middle School last year. While Follmar’s training philosophy emphasizes intensity and Tippetts encourages higher mileage, the two coaches have worked together to create balanced workouts throughout the weeks.
The girls began doing summer training on June 17 while the boys began training after the start of school. The teams train together, 6 days a week from 4-6 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30-9 a.m. on Saturdays.
Each weekday practice typically starts with a half-mile warmup on the school track. After the warmup, the team moves into the main portion of the training, typically running 3-5 miles around the neighborhood. The practice ends with a half-mile cooldown on the track. Every Saturday, the teams run from Sanborn County Park to Saratoga, anywhere from 5 to 9 miles.
One type of practice drill the team does is Oregon Drills, where they run in a figure-eight shape on the lower field. Certain sections of the figure eight are for sprinting, while others are meant for jogging. This method builds speed through interval practice.
In addition, one day per week is speed training, where the team sprints up and down hills in the Foothill Elementary School neighborhood 7-10 times.
“The speed day is especially helpful in building the explosiveness we need for attacking hills in the races,” junior Richard Lee said.
This year, there are over 40 members on the team, consisting of mostly familiar faces — only two seniors on the team graduated last year and 13 freshmen joined the team, whereas in past years there have been over 20 new additions. This may be because of the new mandatory PE policy for freshmen, who have less incentive to join the team since they still have to fit a PE class in their schedule and they don’t receive PE credit for sports participation. As a result of the policy, the team faces an uneven distribution between upperclassmen and underclassmen.
“Many of the newer members aren’t as conditioned, so it’s up to us veterans to teach them how to pace themselves during the race,” Lee said.
Despite this imbalance, many members are excited to participate in all the events throughout the season. The girls’ team is hoping that their freshman additions, such as Claire Hou and Sadie McBeth, will help them place better as a team. In addition, the runners in general all have personal goals to set their personal records (PR), many of the returning athletes trying to beat their best times from the previous season.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into running, and hopefully achieve a new personal record this year,” Lee said.
