With many improvements across the board, Palo Alto High School’s boys’ cross country team placed 14th out of 26 teams in the varsity seeded race at the Stanford Invitational this Saturday.
In this highly competitive meet on the Stanford golf course, which draws runners from all over the nation, only the top 14 athletes from the boys’ team ran. The top seven ran in the varsity seeded race while the next seven ran in the Division 2 varsity race.
Senior Philip MacQuitty led the Vikings with a sixth place overall finish in the seeded race in a time of 15 minutes, 27 seconds for the 5k course.
According to boys’ varsity head coach Joe Ginanni, the team relied on strong races from many athletes.
“Compared to last year’s meet, we ran much better,” Ginanni said. “Phil, Josh [Newby], Ben [Sklaroff] and Pete [Peter Wilson] all ran good races. Those guys were definitely ahead of the pace from last year.”
Seniors Newby (finishing 39th in 16:28), Wilson (71st in 16:57), Sklaroff (84th in 17:04), Henry Jordan (134th in 18:02), Alex Voet (157th in 19:14, and Brian Raftrey (163rd in 19:47) followed MacQuitty in the seeded race.
Led by underclassmen runners, Paly finished 31st out of 33 teams in the Division 2 race. For most of the boys, this was their first time running in a varsity race, nevertheless, and there were many good performances for the younger runners.
Sophomore Corso Rosati finished first for Paly and 133rd overall in 18:49, followed by sophomore Nikolai Solgaard (150th overall at 19:02) and sophomore Thad Claassen (184th overall at 19:42).
Although many Paly runners ran well, the 98-degree heat affected both of Paly’s races. In the Division 2 varsity race, junior John Brunett and sophomore Charlie Kelsey both had to stop because of the heat.
Although Kelsey managed to finish the race, he had to pull over in the middle to throw up.
“I had an omelet about two hours before,” Kelsey said. “I just felt it coming up around the third corner. I jumped off of the track, and after I was done, I figured I had nothing left to throw up, so I just started booking it.”
Kelsey finished fifth for Paly and 198th overall in 20:33.
Brunett was not as fortunate, passing out in the middle of his race because of an asthma attack.
“I was running and then I was on the ground,” he said. “A trainer was right there and brought me to the medical tent.” Brunett did not finish the race.
In the seeded race, Jordan was also disappointed because of the hot, dry conditions, although he did improve from last year.
“It was really hot, really dry, and the big pack and the golf carts leading kicked up lots of dust, making it really dry,” Jordan said. “You also saw people lying by the wayside, and that was just disheartening.”
Although Jordan did not improve as much as he hoped, he realized that all the teams had to struggle with the same tough conditions, and felt that most of team was satisfied with its results.
The entire boys’ team will race again at the League Preview this Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Central Park.