On Nov. 24, the Aragon varsity boys cross country team finished their season at the California Interscholastic Federation Cross Country State Championships in Fresno. Running for Aragon were seniors Rory Beyer, Wyatt Cooper, Christian Pedro, Daniel Goldin, Landon Hart, and Sam Sokolsky, along with freshman Ryan McAuliffe and sophomore Kevin Ruttenberg. The eight-member team finished in fourteenth place out of twenty teams in the five thousand meter run. This marks the first time that an Aragon cross country team has passed the district level and qualified to compete in state championships.
Coach Bill Daskarolis explains, “This was a wonderful accomplishment for Aragon. It was the first complete team that the school ever had attending the meet.”
Senior Rory Beyer agrees that Aragon did well at state, saying, “It was everybody’s first time there in a huge meet. We got fourteenth, which doesn’t sound too great, but considering it’s state, and we made it there, I was really happy with it.”
Says Daskarolis, “As a coaching staff, we were excited by the effort of our team. They were projected to come in 14th and that’s what they did. When you consider the number of quality state-bound teams competing in our division, our team accomplished their immediate goal.”
Ryan McAuliffe, the only freshman on the team, faced some difficult adjustments on a team otherwise filled almost exclusively by seniors. He explains, “Definitely the hardest part was the training. Coming out of middle school, I had never trained very hard before. We were running five to 10 miles per day; that was definitely overwhelming at first, especially at the pace we went.”
Senior Landon Hart notes, “The start was intense, and then when the gun went off everybody sprinted. It was also a great feeling, sprinting across the finish line.”
Beyer reflects, “I was in the lead pack at the mile. It was really cool, being in the lead pack. You look up and you see the guy that’s going to win State, so it’s kind of a cool, humbling moment.”
Hart notes, “We accomplished something very special this year. The team is very proud of what we did. It’s an experience that I won’t forget and I’m so glad that I was a part of this team.”
