West High Boys’ Cross-Country won second place in state finals at Woodward Park on November 26th. It’s the highest honor for the Cross Country Boys to date — and although it’s a huge accomplishment, they felt that they could’ve gone the extra mile.

Training for this was no piece of cake. The Varsity boys described the endurance of getting prepared for the race.

Rory Abberton (11) said, “We begin training in June for cross country each year. We ran all through the summer every day at 6:30 A.M. We had ran well over a thousand miles of practice this year, training months before November with the state meet in mind.”

Ryan Vo (11) explained how practice was calmer at times, so the boys wouldn’t be as exhausted: “We had easier runs since we wanted to be 100% when it came to the race.”    

Of course, when it comes to something as huge as state finals, these runners were feeling pre-running jitters when the big day came. Abberton said, “This was my second time running state so I was a little more relaxed than my first time. When you get to the course though — and you see the other great runners and the hundreds of spectators — the nerves start to set in.”

The load was even heavier because West was ranked 1st in the state, so these boys knew they had to give it their all. Carson Bix (12) talked about how the team was “watching the rankings throughout the season” and how disappointment filled the air when the boys didn’t take home 1st place. He said, “We had predicted to win the race so we were pretty dissatisfied when we lost and I felt I could have done better.”

When asked how he could’ve done better, Bix said, “I feel my weak point is definitely hill. I’m terrible at them.” However, Abberton kept a more optimistic tone on the matter. He pointed out that although the team may be losing good runners for next year, the lower-classmen replacing them have a chance of keeping the team at an even pace.

Even though these boys’ legs couldn’t carry them to 1st place, their hearts were in the right place. Abberton added, “We really wanted to go and winning state and going to nationals had been our goal all year, but 2nd place is the highest we have finished at state so we were proud.” Congratulations to Boys’ XC for making all the way to state finals!