Cross country looks to run away with Ocean League title

In the world of competitive running, Samo’s Cross Country team shows up strong this year. After making it to CIF prelims for the past two years, the team strives to beat their past selves, letting this season be their chance at CIF Finals.  The girls team is led by captains Tupelo Sullivan (’20), Ava Wasson (’20), Parker Lauer (’20) and Dunia Dunn (’20), and the boys team is led by captains Teddy Berger (’21), Shai Grossman (’21) and Will Donaldson (’20).  The team kicked off their season on Thursday., Aug. 29 with a dual meet against Redondo High School where Samo’s Varsity Boys beat Redondo for the first time in the history of the meet.  While the girls team didn’t fare as well, they were missing Sullivan, a team captain who’s currently out with a sacral stress fracture. Nevertheless, the varsity girls still performed with Dunn and Stephanie Garcia (’22) running side-by-side throughout the race. Setting a strong tone for the rest of the season, they took that win into their next meet, Cool Breeze, with a personal record (PR) of 19:11 from varsity runner Garcia. The girls’ varsity team has grown this year, with the additions of Alana Basmajian (’22) and Summer Bennettstein (’22) who are said by Coach Fischer to be standout athletes this season. Wasson sees the addition of these new varsity athletes as the key factor that will ensure success this year.  “We have a really strong group of sophomore girls coming into varsity and they’re definitely going to help us get to CIF finals this year,” Wasson said.   Another new runner this season is Tristin Amell (’21), a Samo student that just moved to Santa Monica from New Jersey. Amell holds a mile time of 4:17 and competed in the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) last year. Fischer hopes that Amell and his teammates can fuse the camaraderie that will win them the Ocean League Title. “The team has grown a lot this year. They’re learning to close the gaps together and run in a pack. It’s clear that they have and will continue to put in the work,” Fischer said. Cross Country has their entire season planned out, with a varsity trip to the Roy Griak meet in Minnesota planned for late September, followed by five invitationals and one league meet before League finals on Oct. 30, where they hope to win before moving on to potential CIF glory.