West High’s Varsity Cross Country team competed in the Monterey Bay Invitational last Friday. Everyone brought home a medal, a rare occurrence that left the team in high hopes for the season.
“Everyone had to earn their way onto the roster,” said Coach Ken Miyazaki. There were fifteen girls in attendance and twenty-four boys.
The boys won 1st place in both their races and the girls won 2nd in both. The JV team came in 2nd, trailing by only 3 points. Karen Pierce (11) finished 2nd out of 178 in her race. Emily Atkinson (11), team captain, won 6th place in the three-mile race with a time of 19:14. The boys’ Freshmen and Sophomore teams won 1st in their races. Yousef Baddour (11), who holds the fastest time in school history, took 1st place out of 141 in the boy’s varsity race, with a time of 15:45.
The coaches were a little worried initially because the team had also had a meet that Wednesday, but the anxiety turned out to be unfounded. “I was very happy with the way they ran,” said Coach Ken.
“All of our fastest people went with the coaches to Monterey,” said Marley Goto (10). The teams put up quite the fight as well, powering through as the only local representatives and impressing even the people hosting the meet.
“There were no other local teams. Our biggest competition was Monte Vista,” said Coach Ken. “We were going back and forth the whole time, us and them.”
“Cross Country is doing exceptionally well this season,” Coach Druten said. “We have won 3 different invitations and all of out league meets. It’s all about the team’s hard work.”
“The girl’s team is putting up a good fight for the Pioneer League title. We should be going to CIF- Prelims this year,” said Laura Oelsner (12). “The last time we went was in 2011.”
The next meet is at Mt. SAC on October 25, at 1:00 pm. The meet will be held at the course at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Walnut, CA.