With five of the seven varsity runners who qualified for last year’s state meet returning, the Paly boys’ cross country team has high hopes for this year.
According to boys’ coach Joe Ginanni, this year’s varsity boys stand a good chance at replicating that performance.
“The goal for the varsity guys specifically is to replicate last year through CCS to later rounds,” Ginanni said. “It’s definitely a possibility, not a crazy, lofty goal.” The team’s remarkable second place finish at the Central Coast Section meet last year qualified the team for the state cross country meet for the first time since 1990.
Unlike those of previous years, the varsity squad this year is composed entirely of seniors at this point.
“While last year we only had two or three [seniors on varsity], Ginanni said. “This year we have seven or eight solid seniors making up the varsity group.”
Senior Philip MacQuitty leads this group with three state meet appearances and hopes to finish in the top five or even three at the state meet this year. He agrees that this year’s team could potentially make it to states again, although he acknowledges that it is still early in the season to predict.
“I think we’re potentially better but it could go either way, depending on if people are injured or sick,” MacQuitty said. “People are putting more mileage in so it could go either way.”
Seniors Henry Jordan and Peter Wilson are also returning members of last year’s state squad.
Jordan feels optimistic about this year despite the graduation of two talented teammates from last season, Skyler Cummins and Charlie Avis.
“Even though we lost Skyler and Charlie, we’re still looking really good,” Jordan said. “Everyone’s improving, and [senior Josh] Newby’s back after being injured for a lot of last season.”
Wilson’s team goals for this year include making it back to states, placing no worse than second at CCS, and placing higher than Gunn.
“Beating Gunn is big on our list because Gunn is currently ranked ahead of us,” Wilson said. “I think we will [beat Gunn] because people don’t really realize the work we put in over the summer. [Senior] Ben Sklaroff for example has moved from non-varsity to second or third or fourth on varsity, a top scorer. Obviously having Phil is huge, and between the rest of us, the season looks good.”
Sklaroff has been consistently running 50-mile weeks throughout the summer and says he feels more fit than ever. He won the Coach’s Challenge, a challenging workout that ends in a race for the finish, for the first time last week.
“I think our team’s going to be really strong this season,” Sklaroff said. “We’re seniors, this is our glory year.”
While seniors currently dominate the varsity squad, Ginanni hopes to see the younger runners improve over the course of the season.
“In general for the team, the goal every year is to get people as fit as possible and make it through the season healthy,” Ginanni said. “For varsity specifically, we need younger guys or seniors who haven’t really been in a varsity role to step up in case any of our top seven get hurt.”
The boys’ cross country team will compete in its first meet, the annual Alumni Meet, next Thursday at Gunn High School’s Bol Park course.