Having already run over five invitational races and several league meets, the Cross Country Team is getting back into the swing of things this fall.

   The team took first place in all four races at its first league meet against Serra High and the Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP). Captain Jayce Bjelland said, “The competition wasn’t much of a challenge, and we came in first in both JV and Varsity on the Boys and Girls Teams, as Sophomore Elise Boisvert won the girls varsity race and Sophomore Julia Gorin won the JV race.” Captain Niko Chapman said, “Serra [High] isn’t a hard team to beat, except for their fastest runner, who I was, luckily, able to beat and get first place in the varsity boys’ race.”

   The intense mileage covered during summer training, along with practices every single day after school, has made the team strong and focused. Chapman said, “We have a really strong pack of guys this year, and we’ve done some pretty intense training all summer and so far this season, so I think it’s going to pay off in the end.” Coach Gimi McCarthy explained, “Probably our biggest goal for the entire Boys Team is to not only win CIF, but run well at state as well.” The Girls Team also hopes to send several girls to State Championships as well. Bjelland said, “We have a couple of girls that that are trying to get to state individually. But as a team, we would like to run really well at CIF and see just how good of a Varsity Team we’ve become.”

   Although the competition at its first league meet wasn’t very challenging, the runners still face some fierce competition. McCarthy stated, “Cathedral [Catholic High] has been our biggest competition for the past few years, and will continue to be for us this year. But hopefully, we can beat them overall at league finals and win league.”

   With over 20 new freshmen being added to the roster, the team is larger than ever this year. Bjelland said, “We are really excited to have so many new freshmen on the team this year. There is a lot of really good potential, and it makes for a great family environment in order to bond as a team.”

   In addition to team bonding, with the new runners comes intensive training that is essential to growth as well. McCarthy explained, “We’re struggling this year a little bit, because we haven’t learned how to race yet, and the only way to do that is to keep up with training and our mileage. Obviously, for a lot of our freshmen, this is a new concept, so we have to build up their pain tolerance and get them used to running at a faster pace and staying with the front pack.”