After losing the entire varsity squad from last year, Palo Alto High School’s boys’ cross country is coming out this fall with an entirely fresh team ready to run their way to victory.

“We have an entirely new varsity squad, a really youthful team that I’m really excited about,” said coach Joe Ginanni, who is starting his third year with the team this fall. “Last year’s team was experienced, older, and they’re all gone now. The varsity athletes are a completely new group of guys. Some call it a rebuilding year, but I’m excited about it and to see what we are able to do.”

The team has a large freshman turnout every year, which is especially obvious this fall.

“Every year we’ve had about 20 guys come out from the freshman class, and this year our freshman class is huge,” Ginanni said.

The freshmen have shown impressive dedication so far.

“Technically we’ve completed two weeks of practice and we’ve had freshmen doing runs freshmen don’t usually do in the first week, like 5 or 6 mile runs, which is not unheard of, but it’s definitely out of the ordinary,” Ginanni said.

As far as runners to look out for, Ginanni asserts that while there are a few players, he sees the whole team working hard and improving.

“On paper, the fastest is junior Nikolai Solgaard; he has the fastest official mile time [4:43] on the team if you’re looking at that type of thing,” Ginanni said. “You could expect him to perform well. As far as summer training, many of the guys had big summers, and trained hard. Sophomore Matan Geller broke the five-minute mile this summer [4:59], and has been doing a lot of summer training.”

The runners look forward to fulfilling personal and team goals this fall season.

“Some personal goals during this years cross country season are mainly just to beat some of last years personal records and also hopefully to run a few races on varsity,” Geller said. “Some team goals for this year are to train hard throughout the season and just to stay fit and healthy.”

“My personal goal this season is to beat Corso Rosati,” Solgaard said. “As for the team, I hope we are good enough to qualify for the CCS [Central Coast Section] finals.”

This year’s team is also unique because there are no huge gaps in talent.

“As long as everyone stays healthy and doesn’t get sick, and there are no injuries, it is really a tossup on the varsity team between all the juniors and seniors in their races,” Ginanni said. “A couple of guys have shown to be harder and faster, but there’s not a huge difference between the top six to seven.”

The schedule for the season’s meets has been altered this year in order to adapt to changes on the team and some of the coach’s goals. There will be less traveling and more of a focus on meets where the entire team participates.

“Changes in the schedule this year kind of reflect the changes from last year’s varsity team,” Ginanni said. “We went on two road trips last year. Portland was great for those senior boys to get to compete out of state, to have the whole experience. They had had such an awesome career, all four years.”

“Clovis was one of the bigger meets of the state, and we had runners who were going to race in the state championship,” Ginanni continued. “Philip MacQuitty was a top contender for the state title when he was on the team. Now we have a young varsity team.”

The coaches also want the entire team to get the chance to run.

“Of course, when we go on those road trips, we can only take one-tenth of the team while the rest of the team is sitting at home, not racing,” Ginanni said. “Now everyone will be able to race seven to nine times, instead of five or six, giving the team more experience.”

The team’s first meet will be held at the Gunn High School track this Thursday after school.

Principal Phil Winston, who is also the former assistant principal at Gunn, said he plans to attend the meet.

“I will be attending unless something is scheduled that I don’t know about,” Winston said.

As far as who he will be supporting, Paly fans will have to see for themselves, as Winston did not disclose.

“Who should I be rooting for?” Winston said. “Who is it in my best interest to support?”

Winston and Ginanni encouraged students to come out and support the Vikings at their first meet.

“I think, literally, no one has ever come to watch a race except parents,” Ginanni said. “Realistically, the best opportunity for the fans would be the Gunn meets. The first one is called the Alumni Race, open to alumni to come back and run and we race against Gunn, St. Francis and a few other small schools.”

Another great opportunity to watch a race will be when the Paly and Gunn teams face off at the end of the season in the City Championships.

“At the end of the year there is the City Champ[ionship] Race, which is basically Paly vs. Gunn. From a fan standpoint, those are interesting and exciting to watch,” Ginanni said.

Regardless, the team will unleash a lot of talent and dedication on the track over the course of this season, according to Ginanni.

“I like running cross country because after you finish a race, you get this feeling of success and accomplishment,” Geller said. “Then the next time you run the same course you get to challenge yourself by training harder and seeing if you can break that same time again.”