With a core of seniors running varsity and several talented underclassmen, the Vikings were able to surpass last year’s finish of third place in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and seventh in CCS.

The Vikings met head coach Paul Jones’ preseason expectations, reaching his prediction of a second or third place finish in both the SCVAL and CCS. The Vikings were happy with their finish at CCS, but were slightly disappointed to have come so close to qualifying for the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship meet. In order to have qualified as a team, the Vikings would have had to finish second in the CCS meet.

“It’s sad that we didn’t make it to state and we were really close to, but we did our best and worked as hard as we could,” senior team captain Susan Heinselman said. “Everyone devoted themselves fully to the season and did their best.”

Looking back at the season as a whole, the Vikings preformed well, advancing further than previous years. With relatively few injuries hindering the team, the team stayed healthy for most of the season.

“The season went very well as a whole,” Heinselman said. “It was great that a lot of girls, including myself, were able to run every race of the season unlike past years,”

With several promising runners returning despite the loss of key seniors such as Heinselman, Gracie Cain and Leigh Dairaghi, the Vikings hope to compete at a high level once again next year.

“We definitely are losing some of our strongest runners.” Sophomore Nora Rosati said. “Our top five runners consisted of three seniors, but we still have a lot of potential on the team and I think a good amount of us are excited for the next season.”