Although injuries to key contributors have limited the performance of the Palo Alto high school’s boys’ and girls’ cross country teams, coaches say both are nearing full recovery and look to compete at full strength for next week’s match versus rival school Gunn.

Boys’ cross country coach Kelsey Feeley says the team will be back to health soon.

“Two of our returners from the top seven varsity squad have been out all season,” Feeley said. “One [Junior Samuel Desré] ran on Friday and did really well . He was given [physical] parameters [by his doctor], but still ran a great race, and our other one, [sophomore] Kent Slaney will be hopefully able to run next week.”

Although the injuries have prevented the team from placing higher in meets, Feeley said she sees many improvements this season.
“We’ve had some young and older kids step up across the board,” Feeley said. “Theres been a ton of improvement since the beginning of the season, and I am excited to see how the second half goes.”

The girls’ cross country team is also recovering currently, and reaping the positive effects of having healthy runners. Senior girls’ cross country runner Kylie Wilson thinks injuries have played a huge role in the both teams’ performance this season.

“Because so many of the varsity runners are injured both boys’ and girls’ teams are not doing as well as we could be doing,” Wilson said. “But for so many people injured, we’re doing ok.”

“We have everybody back and relative healthy,” girls’ cross country coach Paul Jones said. “We finished 6th out of 42 teams at our last meet at Toro Park.”

Jones has a positive outlook on the season, with high expectations for the Santa Clara Athletic Valley League and the Central Coast Selection.

“We’ll finish in the top four or definitely should, which means we qualify for CCS as a team … We’ll probably have up to three all leaguers [at SCAVLS].”

Boys’ and girls’ cross country will compete at 3 p.m. today at the Sunnyvale Baylands.