Before the start of his race Saturday, the sole sophomore on Paly’s
varsity boys’ cross country team knew exactly what he wanted: to run
the Lowell Invitational course in less than 15 minutes and, consequently,become the holder of the Invitational’s course record.
In the end, sophomore Philip MacQuitty completed the 2.93-mile course in 14 minutes, 59 seconds, achieving both of his initial goals. He finished in first place, a full seven seconds before second place senior Brett Valencia of Los Osos.
“I ran my hardest,” MacQuitty said. “It was my first race of the season, but I think I did well.”
MacQuitty helped the Vikings to a fourth place finish out of the 22 total teams in their race. All seven of Paly’s varsity boys completed the Lowell Invitational course comfortably within the top 50 spots of the 155-person heat.
Despite slips in his pacing, junior Charlie Avis claimed the No. 2 spot on Paly’s varsity squad after MacQuitty, completing the course at 16:01.
“I’m used to being second on the team right now,” Avis said, “but I went out too fast.”
Following Avis were seniors Julius Berezin and Brian Karvelas, at 16:24 and 16:25 respectively.
This year marks Karvelas’ first year on the cross country team, and he is already fitting in with the group.
“I’ve been running track with some of these guys,” Karvelas said. “We have a good time, and it’s exciting.”
Karvelas also seems happy with the way the race turned out for him.
“It was only my second race, so I didn’t have any standards,” Karvelas said. “I tried to go for around 17 [minutes] and I surpassed my expectations. It wasn’t a disappointing race.”
Next to finish from Paly’s group were seniors Brian Hsueh at 16:28 and Jeremy Jacob and Gilbert Choi, each at 16:45.
Though Paly’s team ran the race with the absence of a couple of their stronger members Saturday, the seven runners that did run the varsity race were nevertheless able to give solid performances as a whole.
“We ran without two of our top runners, Skyler [Cummins] and Rajan [Narang], but the guys still did really well,” senior co-captain Alok Subbarao said. Cummins was attending a wedding Saturday, while Narang attended the meet but did not run due to an injury.
Avis feels that the team was content with the results of the meet Saturday.
“Everybody was pretty happy with the race they ran,” Avis said.
MacQuitty agrees that the Vikings did well at Lowell, and is proud of the Vikings’ abilities as a group.
“I feel confidence in the team,” MacQuitty said. “We’re doing great.”
After a successful race at the Lowell Invitational, Paly’s varsity cross country boys look to continue this streak Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Stanford Invitational on the Stanford Golf Course.