Recently, the school’s boys cross country team was ranked 93rd on PrepCalTrack’s “California ‘Hot 100’ Boys Teams”. PrepCalTrack is “a high school-focused track & field and cross-country website managed by a small yet passionate team that has been involved in the sport in various ways for nearly a quarter century,” according to its website.

PrepCalTrack ranked Californian boys cross country teams on four main criteria this year, “Team Strength Rating”, “Team Depth Rating”, “Team Reserves Rating” and “Divisional Strength Rating”. All criteria were measured on scales of one to 10 and all teams were rated in the context of all 1,000+ teams in the state and across all divisions in the state. Team strength ratings were based on each team’s projected top three runners. Team depth was assessed by evaluating each team’s projected #4 and #5 scorers. The Team Reserves Rating was based on a team’s projected non-scorers, or “reserve runners who can become key to a team’s potential success when a regular scorer doesn’t compete or doesn’t perform as projected”, according to PrepCalTrack’s article. Finally, each team’s Divisional Strength Rating was an assessment of its postseason forecast in its own division.

Los Altos was given a “Strength Rating” of four, a “Depth Rating” of six, a “Reserves Rating” of four and a “Divisional Strength” rating of four. Three of Los Altos’ runners, juniors and co-captains Ben Zaeske, Andreas Godderis and Kevin Anawalt, were notable mentions within the article with PrepCalTrack identifying them as whom the team will lean on heavily this season.

“All three of them are team captains and to me they are showing leadership [and] they are helping the younger athletes that are now on the boys varsity team,” Head Coach Pam Harris said. “They’ve really been good mentors to [the younger athletes] and I think a lot of it will pay off in the long run.”

Los Altos has traditionally had a strong cross country team, with recent podium finishes at CCS and appearances at States. Harris notes that the team’s strength comes from former coaches Patty Sue Plumer and Dan Oren who worked hard to prepare past teams to perform at their peak.

This season, the team’s projected success can be attributed to its rigorous training.

“They also had a good distance base over the summer,” Assistant Coach Andrew Zaeske said. “And they’re working really hard right now.”

Both coaches, however, also noted that this year will be a building year, as many of the team’s scoring runners graduated last year. For this reason, PrepCalTrack’s ranking came as a surprise to some.

“Being on the top 100 teams is definitely an exciting thought,” Kevin said. “It is hard to imagine that my team has a top spot in the state because we lost a ton of talent last year, the seniors who graduated.”

Even so, others had contrasting opinions about Los Altos’ placing on the list.

“I think the team should have been ranked at least in the top 50 after the success we had last year and the amount of potential we have for the next four years,” Andreas said.

Read PrepCalTrack’s entire Top 100 here: http://bit.ly/1rfkkfm