Yesterday marked the Eagles’ first cross country meet in over a year. Hosted at Los Altos High School, the season’s first SCVAL meet ended with a win for the varsity girls and a fourth place finish for the varsity boys.
Photo Essay: Cross country returns to competition at home SCVAL meet
February 21, 2021
For more coverage of the meet, see this article.
After the postponement of the fall 2020 sports season, the cross country team had their first Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) meet with all 13 schools in the league yesterday at Los Altos High School. Schools raced in teams of no more than 20 athletes per race. LAHS girls won overall and LAHS boys placed fourth.
Friday, February 19
Head coach Stephanie Mackenzie guides the team through the course rules and guidelines at the start of their practice on Friday, February 19.
As part of their warm up on Friday, the team ran through the course. The course was a total of 2.1 miles and consisted of loops around the track, baseball field and back field.
Saturday, February 20
LAHS varsity boys start their race against Mountain View High School. Each wave consisted of a maximum of 20 athletes.
Senior Niels Holst (front left) leads the pack after their first lap around the track as the runners head toward the baseball field.
LAHS varsity girls stay close to their MVHS competitors during the first half of the race. The COVID guidelines for racing state that runners may remove their masks during the race, though they are required to wear masks at all other times.
Senior Hans Holst focuses on the course ahead going into the second half of the race. He finished first in his heat and fourth overall out of the 231 varsity boys across 13 schools.
Junior Shelli Lewis enters the final 800 meter stretch of the varsity girls race. She finished tenth in the heat and 26th out of 111 varsity girls.
Junior Riley Capuano sprints to the finish, placing first in her heat and fourth overall in the varsity girls division.
The next SCVAL meet is scheduled for Saturday, February 27 at Los Gatos High School, where Los Altos will race against Palo Alto High School.
