Cross Country pars last year's successful season

Wrapping up a successful season, Samo cross country performed well in their third league meet of the year, the league finals, on Nov. 1. The freshman girl’s team and both junior varsity teams took first in their respective divisions, while freshman boy’s and both varsity teams took second, behind El Segundo."Last year it was exactly the same; we won in three out of six divisions. Our goal was to win four," coach Tania Fischer said. "El Segundo is ranked in the state, so we were up against a really good team and knew that going in."Three Samo runners also emerged as individual winners. Dylan Zhou (’20), Anya Sturm ('18) and Daniel Cohen ('18) each came in first overall in their divisions. At the first two league meets of the season, Samo performed very competitively, taking first place in all divisions but boys freshmen (who took second) and sweeping the second meet with firsts across the board.The league consists of six schools: Samo, El Segundo, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Lawndale and Hawthorne. While the first two league meets give runners a chance to compete, the only determining factor in the final league score is their performance at league finals."It's almost like [the first two league meets] don't count," Fischer said. "It all comes down to league finals."On Nov. 10, Samo cross country will compete in the CIF preliminaries. There, three groups of 16 teams each will compete. The highest scoring 50 percent will move on to the next round, the finals, on Nov. 18. "We have an outside chance of moving to the next round," Fischer said. "It's one of those things where everybody has to run well."Fischer also has high hopes that some runners will qualify as individuals for their next meet. "I think that overall the program's getting stronger; it's like an investment,” Fischer said. “I have five sophomore varsity girls and this is the first time they're running varsity ever. I think next year we'll be that much stronger."