Injury or illness afflicts all three captains of the Palo Alto High School girls’ cross country team as the varsity team prepares for the Central Coast Section meet this weekend.

Sophomore captain Portia Barrientos has had shin splints for most of the season, junior captain Katie Foug recently strained her hamstring and sophomore captain Bryn Carlson is suffering a persistent cold, according to Barrientos and Foug.

Although Paly placed third in the El Camino division final, which qualified the team for CCS, the season has not been as successful as the runners had hoped, according to Foug.

“After last year we just missed going to states as a team,” Foug said. “We had high expectations for this year because we only lost two of our varsity runners… but the season hasn’t quite panned out to our expectations.”

The lack of success this year can largely be attributed to the aforementioned injuries.

“I got injured before I could get rolling,” Barrientos said.

In order to make it to the state finals as a team Paly must place in the top two teams in the division one CCS meet. The girls are currently ranked fifth in CCS for division one, according to Palo Alto Online.

“As a team we don’t really have a chance to make it to states,” Foug said.

Despite their injuries and low prospects for the state meet, the girls hope to have fun and give it their all during the CCS race, according to Foug and Barrientos.

“[We’ll] just try and run the race and have fun,” Barrientos said.

The team will compete at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Crystal Springs.