The top 14 runners from the girls’ cross country team panted and fought to give Paly a 17th overall finish in the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.

The invitational featured 37-Division II girls’ high school teams nationwide. The Vikings were eager for the competition; however, with the loss of top runner Mia Lattanzi and an influx of underclassmen, the team knew difficult obstacles were in store for them at the meet. Nonetheless, the team was justifiably pleased with their finish.

“The results for the girls on Saturday were a bit better than I expected,” Coach Paul Jones said. “The competition at that meet is probably more difficult than the State Championships since almost all of the best teams from California come, plus hot shot teams from Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas.”

The opposing schools met up with their hype and demonstrated some very strong talent. The meet champions, Woodcreek High School from Roseville, California, had all seven of their runners place in the top 100, with the top five fitting snuggly into the top 50. The top finisher in the race, Stephany Uriostegui from Atwater High School from Atwater, California, averaged a 5:57 mile time in the 5-kilometer race.

The Vikings had been training hard in the weeks prior to the invitational, and their efforts showed. Top Paly finishers were senior Leah Gaeta (76th place), junior Gillian Lui (95th), sophomores Regina Wang (98th) and Kathleen Higgins(119th), and juniors Elizabeth Scott (120th), Jessica Kuo (136th) and Tamar Ben-Shachar (188th). The race featured almost 250 runners.

“The meet was really fun. I liked the course and the general competitive feeling of the race,” Scott said. “We exceeded my expectations.”

Since four of the seven top Paly runners did not run cross-country last year, one of the team’s main concerns was experience. Because Stanford hosted some of the toughest competition in the area, the team was able to improve in this area and prepare for the difficult league meets ahead.

“Mountain View and Gunn are in our league division and they are ranked two and three in CCS [Central Coast Section].” Jones said. “Our division is probably the toughest league in CCS.”

With its first big obstacle conquered, the team is already looking forward to the rest of the season and setting higher goals for themselves. After acquiring several new underclassmen runners, the team’s amount of raw talent is undeniable. Unfortunately, the team still faces other challenges, according to Gaeta.

“I would say our greatest weakness is that most of the new girls, including myself, are not used to racing and race situations, but that should hopefully change before the end of the season,” Gaeta said.

All varsity runners and several from junior varsity will be contending for the top spots in the upcoming meets. Whether moving up the ladder or just keeping their current spot, many of the girls are working even harder during practice and developing routines that address their individual needs.

“I think a lot of us are still working on finding the perfect pacing for ourselves,” Scott said. “You want to run hard enough to have nothing left at the end but still finish,”

Although they possess several areas that require improvement, the squad has already established solid foundations in many other ways. From these strong bases the team will be able to learn and improve their skills for seasons to come.

“Our strengths include excellent leadership and healthy competition for the top spots. We are pretty deep and, knock on wood, healthy,” Jones said.