The cross country team took part in the start of their playoff run with the Central Coast (CCS) race. The race was held at its traditional Crystal Springs location where the best of the best from the El Camino and De Anza leagues came to race for the chance to qualify for state. Junior Sahil Raj was able to qualify for states by placing 11th at CCS and advancing to Fresno’s 5k Woodward park race.
This year MHS sent four athletes to CCS, junior Raj, junior Alex Althouse, senior Faith Wong, and sophomore Keryssa Li. They had run the Crystal Springs course before during the season, but they felt this race was different from a normal invitational or league race.
“There were a lot of schools, a lot of people. It felt big, bigger than me. I really don’t know how to describe it.” Raj said.
At the CCS race at Crystal Springs finished on Nov. 13, Raj ran a time of 16:03.5, Althouse 17:18.9, Li 20:41.8, and Wong 21:01.8. Raj describes his experience at states and what he anticipates for next season.
“States was a really fun experience,” Raj said. “Not only for me, but I think for the teammates that came in supporting me too. They got to see firsthand that it was doable. I think next year we’ll make it as a team,” he said, “Our goal is making states as a team, but I think that goal is more real or more reachable than we think. Because we’re right there.”
According to the athletes they also pushed themselves at workouts and practices before the CCS race. After league finals only the CCS qualifiers practiced with Coach Yohaness so they were able to work closer with him and reached new lengths in their practices.
When asked how she prepared for the race, Wong said, “I did a long run the weekend before, and it was like the longest run I had ever done.”
In addition to training hard to prepare for the race, the runners all had several goals going into CCS. Due to COVID shortening the season last year, there were no playoff races for either cross country or track so they were unsure where to set the bar for this race. However, four-time CCS and three-time state runner, Coach Yohaness gave them a few recommendations.
“Originally, it was just running it. But then, Coach started saying that I can make it to state and stuff,” Althouse said. “He gave me the times that I should be running at. So I tried, … it was a lot of pressure like in the first mile, but eventually the pressure went away.”
Looking forward to next year, the athletes plan to stay in a competitive mindset and set some goals for next year. Althouse said he anticipates making states as a team next year, and Raj mentioned that he wants to make Nike Nationals next year.
“My goal was just to finish the race. I was trying to PR actually on that course,” Li said. “I hope to make CCS again and improve and it’s a lofty goal, but I kinda want to make it to states.”
While Raj makes states this year, and the rest of the team plans to continue to do cross country next year, there is one CCS athlete who will be going to college next year. Wong speaks out on her future plans for whether or not she plans to run in college.
“A person at Occidental [college] said that if I was interested in applying he would love to have me on a team … [and would] flag down the application,” Wong said.