Cross country runs its last race

Walden Sullivan, Staff Writer

During their season, the Samo cross country team not only performed well as a team, but had many individual successes. The team competed in a total of eight meets between Sept. 3 to Nov. 4. They ran in the Cool Breeze Invitational, the No.40 Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, the Dana Hills Invitational, the Palos Verdes Invitational, the first Bay League Meet, the No. 73 Annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational, the Warrior Mile and the Bay League Finals. 

During their 1600 meter races, Joey Hoover (’22) and Francesca Whited (’23) both had outstanding performances. Hoover ran 4:34.72 and Whited ran 5:45.47, awarding them not only first place, but also new team records. 

On Nov. 4 the team ran their last meet of the season, the Bay League finals. During the race, the varsity girls finished in fifth and the varsity boys finished in fourth. In addition to these rankings, the JV girls won third place, the JV boys won fourth place, the freshman girls won third place and the freshman boys won second place. 

Even though the team did quite well, Cleo Topp (’25) thinks that there’s always room for improvement.

“This was my first cross country season, and it went even better than I could’ve hoped. In my opinion, the only thing that we could do next season is incorporate more fundraisers into the schedule,” Topp said.

As the season comes to a close, team captain Kai Sloan (’22) remarks on what he thinks went well for the team this season. 

“What we did well this cross country season was that the varsity boys went from fifth to fourth place,” Sloan said. 

Sloan also specifically highlighted the freshman girls, noting how successful they were in every race. However, the season is not over for all members of the cross country team. Hoover qualified for the CIF championships during the Bay League finals. 

Fridha Nicolas (’23) runs uphill in a Samo cross country race.

David Hunzicker/ Contributor

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