Although Paly’s varsity boys’ cross country team clearly lacked the home field advantage, which is often imperative to any sports team’s success, it determinedly fought its way to first place in the boys’ varsity division during Saturday’s 52nd annual Punahou Invitational in Oahu, Hawaii.

Racing through weariness due to a five-hour-delayed flight to Hawaii, jet lag and unaccustomed-to conditions of humidity and higher atmospheric temperatures, the Palo Alto Vikings seemed to face many disadvantages before the start of their race Saturday. Nevertheless, in an impressive showing of talent and athleticism, Paly’s top five boy runners finished the Punahou Invitational course within the race’s top 10 places.

“We definitely were the favorite entering the meet, looking at the times and everything,” senior co-captain Sam Jones said. “We just went there to compete.”

Junior Skyler Cummins also knew that a first place finish was not at all far from the boys’ team’s reach.

“I was kind of expecting it, expecting us to be up there,” Cummins said.

Paly’s cross country boys raced, according to head coach Jeff Billing, against 14 other schools from Hawaii on a course barely under five kilometers in length. Paly was the only team not from the islands to compete at the Invitational. Nonetheless, junior Colin Schmitt enjoyed the attention the team received.

“It was cool because it made it feel like all eyes were on us,” Schmitt said.

The team ran all 15 traveling boys in the varsity race Saturday. Junior Charlie Avis finished first from Paly and in fourth place overall at 16 minutes, 57 seconds, followed by Cummins in seventh overall at 17:27. Senior Brian Karvelas finished closely in eighth at 17:31, with Jones and senior Jeremy Jacob rounding up Paly’s top five in ninth and tenth place, both at 17:42.

The next Paly Vikings to finish the course came in two distinct packs. Senior Julius Berezin, senior co-captain Brian Hsueh and senior Gilbert Choi crossed the finish line at 17:52, 17:53, and 17:57 respectively. After Choi came Schmitt at 18:17, senior Wes Duplantier at 18:18 and senior Willie Xiang one second later at 18:19.

Senior co-captian Rajan Narang finished after Xiang at18:43, followed by seniors Henry Becker and Alfred Chen at 18:52 and 19:07 respectively and senior co-captain Alok Subbarao, who crossed the finish line at 19:46.

According to Billing, had Paly’s top five boy finishers not run in the meet Saturday, the next five finishers’ performances would still have given the team its first place ranking.

“It’s very exciting,” Karvelas said of the team’s performance. “It’s cool because it kind of gives the whole trip a little more meaning. It’s not like we just went to Hawaii; we actually did well in the race.”

In addition to winning the varsity boys’ race at the Punahou Invitational, Jones also was excited about having competed with the Hawaiian schools that were at the Invite.

“It was fun representing mainland America,” Jones said, “and we rarely get chances to race against these teams. It was interesting to run with them.”

Leaving California Thursday afternoon and returning late Monday night, Paly’s cross country team did much more in Hawaii than simply run. Favorite activities of the trip included jumping off of a 20- to 30-foot-tall cliff into the ocean and going on an “epic mud run,” Cummins said, during which the team sloshed through a sludgy, slippery trail within a nature preserve. By the end of that run, shoes, legs, arms, faces and clothes were fully caked in Hawaiian mud.

“We came out of that run wearing tribal war paint,” Schmitt said with a laugh.

Now back in Palo Alto with a first-place trophy and tans, the boys’ cross country team’s next meet is the City Championships scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 23 at Gunn High School.