The Paly girls’ cross country team took third in its meet in Crystal Springs on Tuesday, qualifying them for a spot in the Central Coast Section (CCS) team tournament.

“The girls ran really good races today,” Paly Coach Paul Jones said, “they performed better than I expected and really earned their spot in CCS.”

The Crystal Springs race concluded the regular cross country season, and many of the girls were pleased with both their individual performances as well as their team results.

“I was really impressed with what we accomplished today,” said Junior Elizabeth Scott, “we all put out our best efforts and a lot of us even set PR’s.”

PR’s, or ‘personal records’, are one of the main tools runners use to measure their improvement. All runners set a personal record for a set distance, meaning some of the girls ran faster at Crystal than they ever have.

The race was a grueling 2.95 hilly miles run under a relentless sun. Six other teams participated in the event, including cross-town rival Gunn. Gunn, ranked fourth in CCS, won the meet in the girls division.

The first finisher for Paly was Senior Mia Lattanzi with a time of 19:21. The rest of the team followed in pairs with Senior Leah Gaeta and Gillian Lui pulling out times of 20:02 and 20:03, respectively.

“I’m really happy with how the team performed as a whole,” Gaeta said, “we definitely deserve our place in CCS.”

The next pack included Sophomores Regina Wang and Kathleen Higgins as well as junior Elizabeth Scott with times of 20:35, 20:32, and 20:31, respectively. Senior Ariana Hoyt finished with a time of 22:25.

“It was a really good way to end the season,” Scott said. “I had seen some of the girls from the other teams in previous meets, so beating some of them felt really good.”

With their focus now set on CCS, the team is revamping their workouts in order to prepare for the increased level of competition.

“We’ll step up our training a little bit up until the tournament,” Gaeta said. “It’s really important that we practice hard and smart.”

Although the workout routine may change, the varsity roster is unlikely to vary too much from Crystal Springs, according to Jones. He has his own set of goals for the team in the upcoming challenge.

“CCS is going to offer a lot of top notch competition,” Jones said, “I think a good goal for the team would be to finish in the top 10 overall in the tournament.

The CCS tournament will be held Nov. 10 in another race at Crystal Springs.