Darra McLintock
On Sept. 27, Aragon’s cross country team competed in the Ram Invitational at Westmoor High School in Daly City.
“The Westmoor meet is a really fun meet because it has everything you want in a cross country meet,” said assistant coach Denise Fournier. “It has multiple terrains, the course is a nice temperature and everything about it is just really fun.”
65 high schools competed, and Aragon’s participating teams were boys freshman, girls freshman/sophomore, boys sophomore, boys JV, girls varsity and boys varsity.
Heading into the race, both coaches and runners were optimistic about the season ahead and the team’s potential in the future.
“The season in general has been going really well,” said assistant coach John Abrams. “We’ve had a lot of newly established personal records. We’ve had a lot of athletes earn medals. We’ve had teams earn plaques. The future looks good.”
Sophomore Alex Yoshino expressed his excitement about the team’s great potential, especially the sophomore boys. Yoshino ran first place at the PAL #1 meet on Sept. 17 and achieved a personal record by 28 seconds.
“We have a good chance of doing … well the next two years,” Yoshino said.
The freshman boys placed eighth out of 13 teams with a score of 188. The team had positive feedback about the race, with some runners emphasizing how everyone gave it their best effort.
“We pushed at the end, just trying to put in all the work, just keeping a good mindset the whole way through,” said freshman Gus Jabri.
At this meet, many freshman runners, although inexperienced with this course, were satisfied with their performance.
“I’ve never done this course before, so I’m really proud of myself and how we did,” said freshman Cameron Patterson.
The freshman and sophomore girls finished sixth of nine teams with a score of 128. Moving forward, they aim to qualify for the PAL Championships and continue improving.
“We’ve done a really good job controlling our speed in the middle of the race,” said freshman Piper Goldstein.
Coming off an exceptional first place finish at the PAL #1 on Sept. 17, the sophomore boys placed sixth of 10 teams with a score of 149. While the result was still solid, several runners felt that the team could have done better.
“[W]e did pretty [poorly],” said sophomore Liam Persson. “But at least everyone pushed through.”
The junior varsity boys placed fourth of 13 teams with a score of 144, boosted by strong performances on the hills.
“Recently we’ve been doing a lot of hill workouts,” said junior Chase Rokala. “That’s really helped us improve … On the hills every time, we sprinted all the way up and passed a lot of people.”
The varsity girls team, missing key runner Dylan Lee, did not have enough runners to be scored as a team. However, the three runners, juniors Sophia Tiu and Helen McCloskey and senior Kylie Avila still did well, securing notable placements.
“As a team, I feel like everybody did pretty good,” Tiu said. “We had a good performance, and a couple of people got medals, so that was nice.”
It was a bittersweet moment for some of the senior varsity athletes who got to experience this course for one last time.
“For me, it was a really nice last race for that course,” Avila said. “And so it was really nice to spend time with friends and race with my friends.”
The varsity boys team finished the meet strong, placing sixth out of 15 teams, and will focus on qualifying for the Central Coast Section Championships in what has been a strong season so far.
“I’d say we had a pretty good day overall, especially with our top runners like Luke [Novak], Tyler [Nichols], and Shuma [Otsuka],” said senior Evan Westheimer. “And overall our team placed pretty well.”
As the season continues, the team looks forward to doing their best again at the PAL #3 on Oct. 22 in Bedwell Bayfront Park.
