Despite rebuilding nearly their entire roster after losing several key seniors, girls’ cross country has made it back to the Central Coast Section (CCS) championships with a strong performance at the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Championships on Saturday, Nov. 9.

The girls tied for fifth place with Aragon High School but ultimately claimed the sixth spot after a rare tiebreaker. The competition was exceptionally tight, with the Panthers finishing just eight points behind fourth-place Hillsdale High School. Head coach Chris Coleman said multiple athletes ran their best when they needed to the most.

“With cross country, it’s tough, because you want everybody to have their best day at the same time. And that rarely happens. But if you look at what happened [at PALs], Stella [Newman], Elizabeth [Carroll], Amelia Reeth, Zoe Browdy and Katie Friedman were on fire. They all ran really well. I think that probably was the best,” Coleman said. “It’s one of the reasons we try to train at Hallmark all the time so that people can get used to it and really perform when they need to.”

Junior Stella Newman, who ran her own personal record of 18:37 in the 2.95-mile event, noticed how the team’s hard work from practice contributed to the girl’s improvement throughout the season.

“I was actually really pleasantly surprised with my time. I think it’s honestly just a reflection of the work we’ve done. Our workouts have suggested that we should be going this fast, and so I think now that we’ve finally cracked the code and actually started being more consistent with fast times, it just is encouraging,” Newman said.

The youngest runner on the varsity squad, freshman Amelia Reeth, finished third for Burlingame and also qualified for CCS individually. Throughout the season, Reeth said she has looked up to the older girls on the team, helping push herself to improve alongside them.

“I push myself to try and not be up with [the older girls] but not be too far behind them, which I know I was, but I really enjoy seeing them come in good and get good places and win medals. So it’s been really nice,” Reeth said.

The girls know the competition at CCS will be fierce, but they’re excited to get another chance to go out and compete as a team before the season ends.

“I’m so excited. I was a little unsure coming into [PALs] if [we were] gonna qualify as a team or if I was going to qualify as an individual, but now I’m super excited that I get to a race again,” sophomore Elizabeth Carroll said.

On the boys’ side, junior Ryan Liu qualified for CCS as an individual. His teammate, senior Christian Kleinekorte, fell seconds short of advancing, but reflected positively on his first cross country season, focusing on his growth as both an athlete and a teammate.

“I’ve seen [the team] just kind of dig, get better, get more mentally tough. There was days when we had to do, three miles and everyone kept on digging and digging, digging until it finished. Everyone’s got more tough,” Kleinekorte said. “… [The team] always does great. They’re a bunch of dogs. I mean, they’re such good role models. There’s a culture that was built here, and it’s amazing. These guys behind me, they’re all amazing.”

Although the boys’ team didn’t qualify for CCS this year, Coleman has seen significant potential in the freshman and sophomore programs, which he believes will have an impact on the boys’ squad in the coming years.

“[The frosh-soph team] have really come together as a team. They are running together, folks are working together. And we’ve really seen those guys grow in the sport and start to give us something to point towards for the future. Running is always individual, but I think the coaching staff and I are very, very happy with the fact that the frost-soph boys worked out together, stayed fairly consistent across all members of the team and were able to do really well. Kind of have their own [personal records], but also placed pretty high,” Coleman said.

The CCS Championships will take place on Saturday, Nov. 11, at Hallmark Park.