With a roster of experienced athletes and several younger runners, the girls’ open division cross country team captured its first win of the season at Half Moon Bay High School on Wednesday, Sept. 17. In addition, the boys’ division followed with a strong showing, finishing 5th in the open division.
“It was actually really good. We saw some underclassmen step up. We had some great performances across our varsity teams, and some good surprises. Open girls took first place, which was quite the surprise,” head coach Chris Coleman said.
Within the girls’ open division team, the standout underclassmen included sophomore Kailyn Darrow and Allison Wylie. New star freshman Claire Hwang also stepped up and contributed to the Panthers’ first-place finish.
“Our open girls had an amazing race. They actually won the open section. That was awesome. They’ve been training together, and so they really worked as a team and won,” junior Elizabeth Carroll said.
On the boys’ side, senior Ryan Liu and junior Tad Folgner led the way. Meanwhile, senior Stella Newman and junior Elizabeth Carroll also showed strong endurance in their races. Newman did not finish the race due to illness, but the team’s performance remained strong.
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Senior Ryan Liu, who is a seasoned cross country runner, dominated the hilly Half Moon Bay course.
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Senior Ellora Horan sprints towards the finish.
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Junior Elizabeth Carroll, star runner of the team, sets the pace for the Panthers.
“For me, it’s always focusing on the workouts and making sure you’re watching your pacing. The other thing is making sure you’re pacing with somebody, making sure you’re running together,” Coleman said. “But right now, it’s early on, and we’re just focused on increasing that endurance so that we can so we can last through the courses. Hallmark is the most important. So that’s the one we’re gonna focus on.”
According to Carroll, the Half Moon Bay course was challenging, and she noted the importance of adjusting their training.
“We’re really trying to do more hill training, because hills are the ones that really take us out on our days, and so we’ve been trying to do like one hill day a week, and just creating that team spirit and bonding has been very important this year,” Carroll said.
After this early success, Coleman said the Panthers will turn their focus to building a championship-ready team for the postseason.
“Our goal is, again, to push the best team forward we can. And so our [Peninsula Athletic League] team at Hallmark will really tell us a lot about that, and then we’ll make our decisions as we head into the PAL championships,” Coleman said.
