Staying true to their motto of “States in mind,” Paly’s varsity boys’ cross country team refused to give up hope when two of their top five runners befell sudden sicknesses Friday night.
Attempting to maintain sight of their goal and remain strong as a team, the Vikings went on to finish fifth in the Central Coast Section (CCS) Finals at the Crystal Springs course Saturday, with their top two runners qualifying to individually advance on to the California State Championships.
Before Saturday’s race, boys’ head coach Jeff Billing had planned on running the same athletes in the CCS Finals as those he ran at the League Finals: sophomore Phil MacQuitty, juniors Charlie Avis and Skyler Cummins and seniors Brian Karvelas, Julius Berezin, Sam Jones and Gilbert Choi.
However, co-captain Jones became sick earlier this week, and Billing decided to fill Jones’ position with senior Jeremy Jacob. When Karvelas and Cummins also fell sick just Friday night, Billing quickly turned to co-captains seniors Rajan Narang and Brian Hsueh to complete the seven-person varsity squad.
“I called Rajan last [Friday] night, and he told me he was already going through his pre-race routine in case anything happened,” Billing said. “He was ready to come in, take care of the team and prepare himself for the team. He’s a great captain.”
Being able to use three runners who ran in the junior varsity race at Leagues in the varsity race at the CCS, Billing was appreciative of the all-around talent of his team.
“You obviously are frustrated and disappointed,” Billing said, describing any coach’s reaction to learning that three of his top seven varsity runners would not be able to compete at the CCS due to health issues, “but I’m so thankful that we have such a deep team. We knew we were still in it.”
MacQuitty also believed that the sicknesses of his teammates never fazed the team from their goal.
“We never didn’t have a chance of making it to States,” MacQuitty said.
MacQuitty, Avis, Berezin, Choi, Jacob, Hsueh and Narang stepped up to the starting line as Paly’s new varsity squad Saturday. Under light drizzles of rain, the Vikings began their race across Crystal Springs’ hilly 2.95-mile course.
MacQuitty stayed behind the leading pack during the first mile of the race, but steadily gained ground and leveled himself out with the group for the remainder of the course. Though MacQuitty was running with the pack instead of ahead of them, there was still no doubt in Billing’s mind that MacQuitty would eventually place first.
“I wasn’t worried about Phil for one second,” Billing said. “I trusted Phil to win the race.”
With about 300 meters left to run, MacQuitty said he steadily began increasing the distance between himself and the pack. Accelerating into a sprint and exploding across the finish line soon afterwards, he earned first place in the boys’ division two race with a time of 15 minutes, 26 seconds, again beating sophomore Garrett Rowe of Mountain View, this time by one second.
“My motivation to win the race was to just become CCS Champ in DII,” MacQuitty said. “My strategy was to stay behind them [the leaders] and out-kick them at the end, and it worked.”
With his first place finish, beating over 100 other runners in his race, MacQuitty became an individual qualifier for the State meet.
Avis was the second of two Paly runners to qualify individually for the State meet. He placed ninth in the race at 15:47, shattering the time it took for him to complete the same course during the League Finals by 20 seconds and seeming surprised by his own performance.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh wow, I can’t believe I’m still with these guys’,” Avis said, of how he found himself running with the leading pack during the middle of the race. “It was so bizarre to be up with those people.”
Billing agrees that Avis’ race was a great one: “Charlie had the race of his life today [Saturday]. The race unfolded perfectly for him. He was in there hanging and hanging with the leaders. It was a huge breakthrough for him.”
Narang was third from Paly to finish the race Saturday at 16:34, also demolishing his League Final time of 17:14. Next came Berezin at 16:43, Choi at 16:50, Jacob at 17:00 and Hsueh at 17:02.
The team placed fifth out of 15 division two teams Saturday, falling short of placing in the top three, which would have allowed them to move on to States as a team.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t make it to States, but we definitely put in the effort,” Narang said. “It’s bittersweet. The team had a chance to do something great, but we barely missed out. It’s still been a phenomenal experience though.”
MacQuitty and Avis will represent the Paly Vikings at the California State Championships set for Saturday, Nov. 24 in Fresno.