While cross country was unable to pull out the team win for the girls or boys at their second Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) meet on Wednesday, Oct. 16, the individual successes were still evident for the squad across the board. Not only were their multiple personal records set, but even with top runners taking it easy after the second mile, they were still able to put up great times and secure high placement.

Junior Stella Newman placed fourth for the girls, with her teammate sophomore Elizabeth Carroll following right behind her placing fifth—earning a new personal record at Hallmark Park in the process. Freshman Amelia Reeth also put up an extremely impressive performance, coming in third for Burlingame varsity and setting her own personal record as the only freshman on the girl’s team. Despite her youth, she has proved to be an important part of the varsity squad.

“One thing I want to highlight, first time on varsity, Amelia Reeth, freshman, actually was our number three. She was 33rd overall in all of the runners, which I think totaled about 85, 86, runners, her first time running varsity, her first time racing on this course,” head Coach Coleman said. “So she was our number three for the girls,which helped us out [as] varsity girls placed fifth.”

On the boy’s side, sophomore Tad Folgner and junior Ryan Liu led the way at the front of the pack for Burlingame. Folgner was another athlete who set a personal record on the course, and Liu also reflected positively on his own efforts.

“[Assistant Coach Steve O’Brien] only let me go two miles hard and then one-mile jog, but I thought for the first two miles it was pretty good. The race could have went out a little harder, I thought. But besides that, I felt really calm, and my breathing was pretty good,” Liu said.

Coleman attributes the numerous personal bests to the specialized mileage training program that O’Brien has helped the team work on.

“[O’Brein] really managing the mileage and managing pieces or parts of the race, depending on which course we’re running on [has helped]. We do our best to train at the Crystal Springs Hallmark course regularly so that people are familiar with it, and we try to tailor the workouts to mirror certain paces, certain portions, and certain distances of that particular race. And I think that has worked very well for us this year,” Coleman said.

Looking forward, the team is focused on achieving their post-season goals of reaching the Central Coast Section competition for the second straight year and possibly the state championships again. Athletes such as Carroll and Newman have been competing in high-level events such as the Clovis Invitational to further prepare themselves for the most anticipated meets of the season. For the rest of the season, the team plans to continue their preparation so they can be as successful as possible when the pressure and magnitude increase.

“I think honestly, [it’s] just more preparation for PAL finals [at] next week[’s] [meet]. Again, it’s a league meet, which some teams care about, but were more focused on the end game. So I think just putting together a good race, we have all the right people and all the right pieces you need. If everyone is on their best and has a great race, I think we’re going to have no problem qualifying,” Newman said.

The last regular meet of the season is set to occur on Wednesday, Oct. 30, and the PAL Championships on Saturday, Nov. 9.