Though some of Paly’s usual runners had injuries, the cross country boys quickly pulled together for a first place team finish out of 17 varsity teams at Friday’s Monterey Bay Invite.
The meet, held at the hilly Toro Park in Salinas, saw impressive performances from the team, with all seven varsity boys winning medals for their team victory and many Paly runners also medaling individually for finishing in the top 30 places of their divisions.
Junior Philip MacQuitty ran the three-mile course in 15 minutes, 43 seconds to win the varsity race. Senior Charlie Avis finished next from Paly with a time of 16:53 and won eighth place overall. The third and fourth Paly runners, senior Skyler Cummins and junior Henry Jordan, came in at 17:02 and 17:03 for 13th and 14th overall finishes, respectively. Junior Andrew Stober finished in 17:45 for 36th place overall. Juniors Alex Voet and Ben Sklaroff finished within a second of each other, both at 18:04, to take 49th and 50th overall, respectively.
The varsity boys’ team, with an average time of 16:53, defeated Gunn and Lynbrook, which took second and third, respectively.
“[Assistant coach] John [Welsh] and I felt that yesterday’s meet was a huge success for the boys team,” head coach Joe Ginanni said on Saturday.
The JV boys as a team claimed fifth place in a field of 12 teams, with junior Conor Ney coming in tenth overall out of 180 runners, a surprising performance after an injury that prevented him from racing during much of the season.
“Conor has been out for pretty much the whole season and ran his first race yesterday, with a huge performance,” Ginanni said. “I was very impressed and I think it was an inspiring run for the boys who saw it.”
Also in the JV race, junior Varun Kohli finished second from Paly and 15th overall at 19:07. Seniors John Hicks and Jay Nguyen came in 31st and 32nd overall at 19:58 and 19:59 respectively, and senior Abe Wilson was 37th at 20:08. Senior Oliver Davies, who set a personal record by more than two minutes, finished close behind at 20:17 for 41st place.
“John Hicks, Jay Nguyen, and Oliver Davies put up nice improvements on this course and are looking great,” Ginanni said. “Also impressive were the performances of Freddy [Avis] and Corso [Rosati].”
Rosati and Avis placed 19th and 22nd in the frosh-soph division, respectively.
The Vikings prepared well and exceeded expectations on the tough Toro course although they were missing some runners due to injuries, including juniors Peter Wilson and Josh Newby.
According to Ginanni, the boys are focusing on continuing to train hard and stay healthy.
“I have really been pushing for the boys to be open about how they’re feeling and to listen to their bodies,” Ginanni said. “I trust them to be open with the coaching staff about any pains, and all of us know that our most important race is going to be CCS. Being healthy and ready to compete on that day is our top priority.”
Holding high goals going into the later part of the season, the boys are optimistic about their next meet, the City Championships, at Gunn on Oct. 28.
“I think we’re improving, and we just need to keep training and doing well,” freshman Andre Gouyet said.