Runners Win Medals

By Kevin Lin Published: October 8th, 2009 at 8:52 AM PST Updated: January 9th, 2012 at 7:36 PM PST

Temperatures rising, chests panting, and legs aching, the Cross Country team sprints past the finish line with other schools’ runners, bringing back two medals.

Coaches Nangle and Miller lead the Cross Country team. Cross Country’s first meet of the year was the Palma Chieftain Classic Invitational held at Toro County Park on September 19. Coming in as our top female runner, Kelsey Hilbrich (12) finished with a time of 20:14, and our top male runner, Aadithya Prakash (12) finished with a time of 17:56 at the first 3.1 mile meet.

Varsity girls placed 5th with 116 points, Varsity boys in 10th with 232 points, and JV boys in 9th with 250 points. The points are determined by the individual place each member of the team finishes as in a race, added onto each other. The less points a team has, the better. Girls JV did not have enough team players to qualify due to the recent flu outbreak. This impacted the results of the team dramatically as nearly half of the team was sick.

The second meet of the year, the Saratoga Invitational, was held at Saratoga High School on September 22, where only JV boys and girls competed. At the Saratoga meet, two JV girls, Tara Hansen (12) and Laura Yau (10), won medals.

 “You’re tired, it’s hot, but you’re done. It’s a good feeling,” Laura said when asked how it felt to finish a two-mile race.

 “When you see the finish line, you’re like ‘I did it,’ so you sprint. My goal was to get a medal, and I got it by sprinting at the end to overcome the last girl,” Tara said.

Varsity ran at the Stanford Invitational on September 26, with Girls’ Varsity placing 14th, and Boys’ Varsity placing 24th. Individually, Kelsey placed 14th and Aadithya placed 40th. Both Kelsey and Aadithya improved from their last times Kelsey from 20:14 to 19:49 and Aadithya from 17:56 to 17:02.  The Cross Country team is currently ahead of league competitors, Menlo and Sacred Heart Preparatory.