On Oct. 31, Aragon’s cross country team participated in the Peninsula Athletic League Championships at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course. The cross country team has been preparing a long time for this meet, attending three PALs and three invitationals prior.
“We’ve been running for many months, [including] running over the summer,” said sophomore frosh-soph runner Tate Broussard. “[We’ve had] practices every day, [we’ve been] working really hard and … [we’re] making sure that we are at our peak for championships.”
Varsity teams that placed within the top half of their heat at this meet would qualify for Central Coast Section Championships, which includes teams from all over the Bay Area. Both girls and boys varsity made CCS last year. On the day of the meet, the frosh-soph boys placed sixth out of 13 teams, the JV boys placed second out of 10 and the JV girls did not have a full team and were unable to place.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better team to run my senior year with,” said senior captain and JV runner Louis Riviere. “I’m so grateful to all of them. They’ve been so incredibly supportive and fun and just amazing to hang out with, and amazing to run the workouts with.”
The team worked hard throughout the season, and the results in their championship meet demonstrated that.
“Shout out [to] the whole team,” said co-head coach Denise Fournier. “For all the work that they put in this season, for their dedication to the sport, because it’s a grueling sport, [with] many, many miles. So, I am really proud of all the effort that they have put in.”
The girls varsity team placed seventh out of 13 teams, which counts as the top half of the teams, and barely made
CCS. They beat Mills by a single point, which allowed them to qualify.
“There are a lot of teams that are very good in our league,” Fournier said. “And our teams stepped up. We had an injury in the varsity girls, and the rest of the team just picked up the slack and took off and helped us qualify for CCS … That was pretty amazing.”
The varsity boys placed eighth in their heat, which qualified them for CCS as they were in the top half of 16.
“It’s critical to qualify for CCS,” said junior and varsity runner Isaac Albert. “So it’s really a highlight of the season … We’re going to be really training hard to do as best as we can at CCS. Realistically, it’s gonna be very difficult because CCS is a really competitive race.”
Placing in the top three at CCS would qualify the team for California Interscholastic Federation State Championships. However, even if they are not able to make it to the state championships this year, the team has strong potential for improvement in future seasons.
“We got a pretty solid team,” said junior captain and varsity runner Alex Yoshino. “We have a lot of depth in the middle ground, so [if] we put in the work over the summer … we should be pretty good, and, hopefully, good enough to make a run at state.”
Many runners credit their success to the team for motivating them to do better and run faster.
“[The team has] been pretty good,” said sophomore varsity runner Matias Fernandez. “They’re supportive. Every race, you can hear them … cheering for you and yelling for you. And that makes you go faster.”
As both boys and girls varsity cross country teams reached their goal of qualifying for CCS, they are looking ahead to the championships on Nov. 14 at Crystal Springs.
