Season Preview: Cross-Country picks up the pace

Girls

Girls’ Head Coach: Danny Moon

Recap of 2017/18: Team sends seven runners to CCS and achieves 5 personal records

Key Matchups: Lynbrook &  Monta Vista

Key Additions: Nicole Lu

Key Losses to graduation: Lillian Zeng and Hailey Scola

Star Players: junior Julia Hoffman, seniors Isabella Tan and Siena Parsons

League: De Anza Division

 

Despite suffering last year due to a lack of freshman interest with only three new freshmen, the girls’ cross country team has  regained optimism after this year’s turnout of 15 freshmen.

“I can already tell that our team this year is really strong; everyone comes to practice willing to work their hardest,” junior team captain Tricia Jain said.

The team has been working hard in anticipation of their first meet at Lynbrook on Sept. 10.

“We are expecting a lot of great runs and [personal records] at Lynbrook and the goal is to keep improving meet times as the season progresses,” Jain said.

 

Boys’ Head Coach: Ian Tippetts

2017-2018 recap: Senior Amit Nag qualifies for the state meet and ranks 21st; seniors Anirudh Rao and Charles Qi, junior David Berkowitz-Sklar, and sophomores Kole Tippetts and Shivam Verma attend CCS; team places sixth at CCS with Nag placing fourth overall

Key Matchups: Palo Alto &  Los Gatos

Key Additions: freshman Harrison Dance

Key Losses to graduation: Amit Nag, Anirudh Rao, Charles Qi

Star Players: junior Kole Tippetts, Sahaj Rastogi, and Alex Pan; seniors Nirav Adunuthula and David Berkowitz-Sklar

League: De Anza Division

 

After the 2017-2018 season yielded great results with the team sending five runners to CCS and ultimately placing sixth, the team now looks forward to the 2018-2019 season in hopes of making practices harder and more efficient to replicate their past success. The  team ended the 2017-2018 season with an average mile speed of 6:35, an improvement of 27 seconds compared to the 2016-2017 season — a testament to the efficacy of coach Tippetts’ creation of harder and stricter practices.

The team had their first meet at the Stevenson Invitational on Sept. 8 where the varsity team consisting of freshman Harrison Dance, juniors Kole Tippetts and Shivam Verma, and seniors Nirav Adunuthula and Hugo Huang came fourth in their division and sixth overall out of 50 teams.