West High Cross Country raced in the South Bay Cup Wednesday and pulled out a couple wins. There were different races for every level- from Frosh to Varsity, and almost everyone competed. It was held at Columbia Park and proved to be successful for West.

Grace Petersen (10) said “it was a challenging race, but it being shorter than usual made things easier and balanced out.” The area was grassy at parts, making it difficult to run on, however, it was .45 miles shorted than a normal race. Because not that many people were racing, the intensity level was reduced. But what did stress the  competitors out was the dirt path that ran through the course. The path was hot and in some people’s cases burnt through their thin shoes.

West came home with a couple wins; the Varsity boys got first, JV boys got first, JV girls got third, and Freshman girls got third. Varsity girls got a break this race and didn’t have to run.

The race the Varsity boys competed was also triumphant. Carson Bix (11) said “the biggest challenge [for him] was beginning too fast and burning out towards the end.” Bix still managed to get third place in the race and secured the top 3 spots for West. Yousef Baddour (12) came in at 1st, Caleb Terrill (10) at 2nd, and Carson Bix at 3rd.

This was Yousef’s second year in a row getting first place. He said he was “happy about the win but at the same time, because it wasn’t technically the full three mile CIF course [he] was used to, it wasn’t as big of a deal.” Cross Country has done consistently well for the past couple of years and they plan on continuing this in years to come.