Cross Country: Injuries may hamper future success

The injuries of two varsity runners, freshman David Zarrin and sophomore Lawrence Liang, may prevent the boys’ cross country from succeeding in league and CCS meets. Liang is slowed by a back injury while Zarrin has to wear cumbersome knee braces while running.

“Unless [Liang and Zarrin] recover from their injuries, we’re going to have a hard time placing in CCS,” said top runner junior Kyle Fukui.

Despite these setbacks, the boys ran successfully in the Castro Valley Invitational Oct. 10. Fukui was absent as a result of a marching band competition, but the team placed 14th out of 30 teams. Zarrin and junior Garrick Chan both ran well, with Chan placing 74th and Zarrin placed 98th out of 265 runners. Freshmen Pablo Parker and Aasim Naqvi stepped up to varsity, finishing 133rd and 130th, respectively.

“It was a tough course,” said Zarrin, “but luckily [our race] was in the morning so it wasn’t too hot.”

The team also raced in the Crystal Springs Invite Oct. 22, but the results could not be published due to printing deadlines. The Crystal Springs course is known to be one of the toughest in the nation with its dusty, hill-filled 2.95 miles. The boys will run the course three times this year as both the league and CCS meets take place there.

“Every time you run Crystal Springs, you learn something new,” said Fukui. “So the more experienced have a good chance of improving on their times from previous years.”

Fukui’s personal record on the course is 17:05, and his goal is to run it in under 16:40 by the end of the season. It was Zarrin’s first time on this course and he had mixed feelings going into it.

“I [was] excited to finally get to run there,” said Zarrin, “but I [was] nervous for my first time.”

The boys have the second Lynbrook Center Meet coming up Oct. 29, followed by the league finals Nov. 3 and CCS finals Nov. 14.

“Our chances of making state as a team are low,” said Chan. “But there is a chance that there will be individuals that will make it to the meet. We just have to train hard for the next two weeks.”