Going into the Central Coast Section championship meet Saturday, the Los Altos boys cross country team set its sights on winning, with a mindset that every second and finish matters.
The boys used that mentality en route to a CCS Division II win, with Los Altos head coach Steph MacKenzie praising the boys for believing in themselves and having a great performance on the day to improve on the second-place finish at CCS last year.
“They just worked really hard as a team, and they put in the training, and then this week really got it in their heads that not only could they qualify for state, but they could actually win this thing,” MacKenzie said.
Los Altos finished with 88 points, with second place Serra scoring 119. Eagles runner Sam Hurst finished eighth overall for Los Altos in 15 minutes and 26 seconds on the Crystal Springs course in Belmont of nearly three miles.
“He’s been great all season,” MacKenzie said of Hurst. “He’s a real team leader just in terms of being our fastest runner to set the pace but also in his leadership skills in keeping the guys together and focused.”
Los Altos runner Tomas Smilak went from being the seventh runner for Los Altos at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League championship a week ago to the second fastest runner at CCS, finishing 1:06 faster. Smilak finished 12th overall (15:45), while Sreyas Kadiyala 13th (15:48) and Alex Halpin 27th (16:03) improved on their course personal records. Taran Davies finished 35th with a time of 16:14.
In the girl’s Division II race, St. Francis won with a score of 47, while Los Altos finished second with a score of 66. Los Altos runner Samantha Witteles finished third with a time of 18 minutes and 14 seconds, Lily Symon 11th (18:39), Axelle Allanic 12th (18:41), Emma Lewis 19th (19:06) and Emily Soobrian 21st (19:15). Witteles has emerged as one of the team’s fastest runners and has taken three minutes off her time from last year at Crystal Springs.
“We felt pretty confident that we could lock up second place this year,” MacKenzie said. “St. Francis was incredibly strong this year. They are one of the better teams in the state.”
The Mountain View girls won the CCS Division I race with a score of 37 points, with second place Evergreen Valley finishing with 60. Four of Mountain View’s runners finished in the top 10, with Maya Eisenberg scoring third with a time of 18:44, Shira Kafka fifth (18:51), Cassidy Misuraca sixth (18:51), Ada Bielinska eighth (18:53) and Fiona Lee 15th (19:37).
The Mountain View boys also took first in the CCS Division I section with 34 points, edging out Bellarmine with a score of 47. Mountain View’s Ryan Chen won the race with a time of (15:16), with Yuval Goldberg second (15:23), Rowan Gentin sixth (15:30), Deven Koppala 12th (15:42), Kiran Haywood 13th (15:43) and Dean Caringella 17th (16:01).
Los Altos and Mountain View will move on to the CIF state meet in Fresno at Woodward Park Nov. 30.
