Paly’s boys’ cross country team officially launched its 2008 season last Thursday with its first meet of the year, and team spirit is running high in anticipation of an amazing season to come.
The varsity boys ran an incredible race, with the top five Paly finishers placing in the top ten overall out of 44 varsity runners from Gunn, Paly, and The King’s Academy.
Junior Philip MacQuitty placed first overall, running the 2.2-mile course in 11 minutes flat, while senior Charlie Avis came in second place overall at 11:18, a 14-second improvement over his time from last year’s Alumni Meet.
Also at the head of the Paly pack were junior Henry Jordan and senior Skyler Cummins, who finished in 11:28 and 11:32 respectively. Junior Peter Wilson placed ninth overall and fifth from Paly’s team, while junior Andrew Stober set a personal record (12:51) in his first varsity race.
In the junior varsity division, Paly’s Jay Nguyen took second overall at 13:21 while senior Daniel Yeh, the second Paly runner to finish, placed ninth overall with a time of 14:05.
Freshman Corso Rasati began a promising running career with his second-place overall finish at 13:09 in the frosh-soph division, and sophomore Michael Li, who is new to long-distance running, was close behind at 13:14.
The Alumni Meet at Gunn’s Bol Park, the first of two races at the course in which the team will compete, served as a way for coaches to gauge the team’s condition and get the boys in the competitive mindset where they will perform at their best.
“Our goal for this meet is to see where everybody’s starting off at and to get some racing experience for the younger guys,” boys’ head coach Joe Ginanni said before the meet. “We’re preparing our freshmen for a good four years at Paly.”
As well as encouraging new members, the team looks forward to perfecting the talent within its varsity group.
“This is a great opportunity to see our varsity team in action because it will be a force to be reckoned with,” junior Jujhaar Singh said before the meet.
With this strong combination of determined new runners and experienced returners, the cross country boys are setting high expectations for themselves this season as, according to Ginanni, the boys hope to win both leagues and CCS this year.
After earning the league championship title in 2007, the boys went on to place fifth in CCS even though three of the team’s top seven varsity runners fell ill and were unable to compete. This year, the team hopes to go to CCS in full strength and qualify for States.
The Vikings aim to continue their strong meet performances by standing out in their next competition, the Lowell Invitational, on Sept. 20 in San Francisco.