By JORDAN SMITH
Sports editor
The search for greatness within Poly athletics focuses significantly on this year’s cross country team. Last year’s 3rd place finish for the boys squad at the state meet, in which they edged out fourth place finisher Flintridge Prep by just 1 point, has earned the team a 3rd place ranking among this year’s CIF competition.
The loss of only one of last year’s starting runners further raises expectations for this year, and if that weren’t enough, the team has pushed through some of its most proficient off-season training over the past few months than it has seen in recent memory, according to coach Rick Caragher. “A team trip we took for some training in the Grand Canyon really seemed to set the team on a collective mission,” says Caragher, “They’ve just become so motivated and focused that they’ve been able to develop a huge aerobic base.” The aerobic base, to which Caragher refers, is the foundation of a team’s success that they develop through training. “The bigger the base,” claims Caragher, “the higher we can climb.”
Despite being unable to reach CIF competition last year, the girls’ squad has set its sights far beyond some of its past performances. Like the boys squad, the girls lost only one of last year’s top runners, and this year 4 seniors return to lead the squad. One of them, Jenny Lamb, admits that their performance last season was less impressive than they may have desired, “We ran a pretty good last race, but some of our times in our earlier races kept us out of the playoffs.” However with the return of almost the entire varsity squad and the addition of two talented freshmen, Brittany Gates-Kayyem and Olivia Hudnut, the girls are prepared to sprint their way through challenging league competition.’
Both the boys and girls ran their first race this weekend and both met, and in some cases exceeded, the expectations set by their off-seasons. Junior Molly Thorton set a new personal record, beating her former best by 36 seconds, while senior Dan Silver posted the team’s best time for the day at 16:03 (over three miles), and freshman Cameron Rho set a Poly freshman course record of 18:48.
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