On Oct. 8, the girls’ and boys’ cross country teams not only finished the notoriously hilly 2.95-mile Crystal Springs course but runners left with personal bests.
“Our goal for the meet was to be close to our PR’s from last year so we can build upon that and achieve a good PR for the league finals, which is also hosted at Crystal Springs,” junior captain Kyle Li said. “A lot of our runners ended up breaking their record, and we hope that we’ll be able to continue building miles into the next two weeks to get another record.”
Li broke his previous PR of 19:37.9 and completed the course in 18:06.5. The fastest runner on the boys’ team was sophomore Jack Dong, who also PR’d, breaking his previous time of 17:49.7 and ran the course in 17:16.8. On the girls’ team, freshman Claire Hou completed the course first, setting her time of 20:13.5.
Fellow team captain Anisha Rahut said her main focus has been onboarding the freshmen smoothly into the team and the new season, particularly by familiarizing them with various courses by walking the course prior to the meet or studying the map with them.
“There’s definitely some nerves before running, especially for the younger members, so I try to serve as an encourager and comforter,” Rahut said. “My job is to help them study the course and advise them where to push and where not to push.”
Li felt satisfied with the team’s performance at Crystal Springs, noting that many team members exceeded their personal goals by attaining a PR.
In addition, Li stated that there was a significant decrease in injuries this year, which he believes likely contributed to the teams’ success.
“I made sure to emphasize the importance of proper stretching before and after races,” Li said. “As a result, we saw fewer injuries like shin splints this season.”
The teams’ latest meet was on Oct. 22 at Bayland High School. Typically, they reduce their mileage before meets to avoid soreness, but with league finals just two weeks away, they are focused on maintaining higher mileage until a week before the finals to ensure athletes are in peak fitness.
During this meet, they focused on “tempoing” or pacing themselves.
“The varsity boys team decided to go for the first two miles at six flat and then see how the third mile goes,” Li said. “I usually start out too fast and this worked surprisingly well for me. So, I will definitely try to pace myself better going into the league finals.”
By the end of the season, Li aims to complete the Crystal Springs course in under 18 minutes. He also hopes that the entire frosh-soph (freshman and sophomore) team can complete the course in under twenty minutes and for the varsity team to place fifth in their league meets.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we’ll be able to achieve these goals by the next two meets. As long as we continue to work hard and keep a positive outlook, they’re definitely attainable,” Li said.
