The girls’ cross-country team finished sixth in the Central Coast Section (CCS) meet on Saturday, November 11, with two runners qualifying for the State Championships.
The race consisted of a hilly three-mile course at Toro Park, Salinas, with teams competing in divisions based on their school’s size.
"We were in Division 2, which according to the results was the toughest one," coach Paul Jones said.
Division 2 includes Los Altos, Mountain View, archrival Gunn, and Los Gatos, the latter three of these schools making up the top three finishers in the race last weekend.
There were runners from a total of 14 schools competing in Salinas, along with around a dozen individual runners who had each qualified for the race in their own league meets.
Paly’s top two runners, seniors Alicia Ivanhoe and Renata Cummins, placed sixth and eleventh respectively, qualifying to race in the State Championships.
"I’ve gone the last three years so I really wanted to make it this year," Cummins said. "I was scared that I wouldn’t make it because I had a really terrible race. Alicia and I went on our cool down after the race and we looked at the scores. It took us a couple seconds to realize that we had qualified for states and when we did we hugged each other and were really excited."
The girls are currently training for the State Championship Meet, which will be at Woodward Park, Fresno on November 25.
"I feel ready to kick some butt!" Cummins said.
In preparation for the State Championships, the girl’s current training schedule is not as strenuous as it was earlier in the year.
"Once you get only two weeks before states, you have to maintain your fitness rather than work really hard to get more fit," Cummins said. "You can’t really get any more fit in two weeks. Right now we’re just taking it easy; it’s my favorite part of the season."
Although the girls have been successful this year, next year over half of the current girls varsity team will have graduated from Paly.
"Of our seven varsity runners, four were seniors, so we have some work to do for next year," Jones said. "Three of our best runners [from last year] graduated and two more were unable to participate this year, [due to] a knee injury and a Campanile conflict."
Despite these setbacks, the team maintains a positive attitude.
"We have a really good group of sophomores this year so if they don’t let all of their hard junior classes get to them, we should have a really good team next year," Cummins said.
As the end of cross-country season nears, Jones reflects on the team’s performance.
"They [the girls] stepped up to have a fine season," Jones said. "I was happy with this season’s results."