The Cross Country team took their top ten runners on a two night trip to fly down to the Mt. Sac meet in Los Angeles October 19-21. In addition to preparing for the race, the runners also spent time fundraising enough for the trip, through selling parking, concessions, as well as setting up a Gofundme.
The team left San Francisco at noon on October 19th. After arriving in LA, they drove to the hotel and checked out the course, before a carb loading dinner at Olive Garden for the race the next day.
This year was the 75th anniversary of the Mt.Sac meet, a historic 3 mile course that has stayed almost the same since the Mt. San Antonio College first hosted it in 1948. With an elevation gain of 463ft, the course is notorious for its many hills, including one so steep it’s officially named “Poop Out Hill”. In addition to the inclines, the runners also faced intense heat: by 11:15am when their races started, the temperature was in the high 80s.
The runners felt great about being able to compete in the event. Senior runner Niki L. said, “I was oddly really excited for it. It was definitely the hardest race I’ve gone to, but I think I really benefited from it, so I’m really glad I went.”
The team finished well overall, highlighted by the boy’s team placing 7th out of 23 teams, and the fastest girl, Noelle K., placing 4th out of 140 runners. Besides placing well, a number of the Galileo runners also had great races for individuals.
“We ran amazing. We took ten kids and we had 8 or 9 decent races. When you factor in the heat I thought we ran really well because kids in San Francisco don’t run well in the heat,” says Coach Braund.
In addition to racing, the team was able to take advantage of being in LA. The day after the race, they ran all the way up to the Hollywood sign and back (6 miles total) before visiting UCLA, and driving back to the airport to fly home.
For the cross country team, All City is now coming up in less than two weeks. Despite the recent setback of many of varsity team catching Covid, Coach Braund says, “I feel really good going in. Just how the team has grown I’m most excited about but then in terms of how we can place, right now our girls could win it, and our boys could win it.”
