Girl’s Preview

Palo Alto High School girls’ cross country team is back after finishing second in league and third in the Central Coast Section and is looking to improve on last year’s season.

Coming off a season where junior Katie Foug made it to CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Cross Country Championships as an individual where she ran her season best time of 19:30.00 in the 5,000 meter race, according to Cal runners, Coach Paul Jones said that this year he is aiming for the whole team to go to the state meet this year.

“We would like to try to win the league this year,” Jones said. “We would like to try and qualify for the state meet, which means the top two teams in Division One.”

Senior Audrey DeBruine and Foug will lead varsity as team captains.

Junior Ariana Tindall is enthusiastic about the team.

“I’m really excited [for the season] and everyone seems to be working really hard and doing their best,” Tindall said.

Boys Preview

The boys’ cross country team welcomes two promising runners who have the potential to help it place higher this year.

The team will be led by a new coach, Kelsey Feeley, who was the boys’ long-distance track coach last season.

She is counting on the new additions as well as some strong returners to anchor the team.

Junior Lucas Matison, who placed sixth in CCS for his old school, Carlmont, transferred to Paly after the season last year. Also joining the team is freshman Kent Slaney, who ran at the Junior Olympics over the summer.

Feeley’s goal is that her runner’s beat their individual times from last season or at the end of the season beat their times from the beginning of the season.

“My biggest thing is [that] I want everyone out here to want to improve,” Feeley said.

Boys cross country is also hoping to send some runners beyond CCS, according to Feely.

Both teams will compete at 3 p.m. Sept. 3 at Gunn High School.