The boys varsity cross country team placed first and the girls placed third in the El Camino League Finals today, October 30, pushing both teams forward onto CCS. The achievement is especially significant as it is the first time since 2009 that both the boys and girls teams will advance to CCS.

“I think it’s a huge accomplishment,” girls team Captain senior Claire Bowie said. “I didn’t run what I personally wanted to, but I think the team did a great job even though a few of our runners had to struggle because it was hot and a few illnesses were going around. Considering this was the first time [since 2009], both the guys and the whole girls team making it on is a huge thing.”

Even though both the girls and boys managed to place highly, the team has still more in store for CCS. The team trained through the meet in preparation for the CCS Finals, and so the team did not intend to be in top condition for leagues.

“We didn’t change our mileage and we didn’t back off on training throughout this week as today was just a workout run,” boys team Captain senior Alex Carr said. “Now we’re going to drop the mileage and do shorter workouts with shorter mileage and get ready for CCS. So then we’ll be at our max speed by the time we get to CCS.”

Individually, junior Terrence Rabuzzi managed to place second with a time of 15:50, followed closely by Alex in fourth with a time of 16:11. With these individuals results and first overall for the third year in a row, the boys varsity team has high aspirations for CCS and states.

“At CCS we’re looking to win for the first time,” Alex said. “We’ve been the favored team since the first meet as we have been number one in Division 2. We do have some competitors like Leland and Aragon, but we’re still looking for a win this year.”

The girls side also has high hopes with freshman Lauren Jacobs placing second and Claire placing 11th.

“The big goal here is to go to States,” Claire said. “If we do really well at CCS and we still don’t make it on, we’ll still be very happy with our progress this year and I’m sure that next year as a team we’ll continue to do better. It really would be great for us to go on to States this year though.”