On Nov. 12, members of the cross country team gathered at the Crystal Springs course for CCS, and placed third for varsity boys, and fourth for varsity girls, both in division one. While neither team qualified for State Championships, four runners individually qualified.
On the boys side, qualifying for State Championships were senior Nathan Morris, who placed sixth with a time of 16:13.1 on the 2.95 mile course, and sophomore Ryan Chen placed eighth with a time of 16:19.1. The rest of the Mountain View boys were freshman Deven Koppala, senior Rowan Moore, junior Kiran Haywood, junior David Henri, and freshman Yuval Goldberg, who ran 16:37.5, 16:39.3, 16:55.5, 17:06.5, and 17:10.9 respectively.
For the girls, qualifying were senior Olivia Backholm placed fourth with a time of 18:52.1, and junior Maya Eisenberg, who placed sixth with a time of 19:06. The rest of the girls were Cassidy Misuraca, Annie Riordan, Shira Kafka, Kendall Nord, and Audrey Davidson, who ran 20:50.9, 21:00.8, 21:21.7, 21:39.2, and 22:36.9 respectively.
“Right after Heartbreak Hill was the most challenging part because we had just gone up this hill, and I knew that I had to keep sticking to the Evergreen Valley girl so that I wouldn’t fall behind,” Eisenberg said. “That was really tough because I didn’t want to keep going and my legs were really hurting at that point, but I had to push myself to keep going.”
Backholm said that the first mile was not too challenging, and added that seeing the crowd on her way back around was very motivational for her. However she said that things started to get difficult during the second mile.
“I took [the race] knowing my own pacing, and I went in the race knowing that I was starting to get sick, so I didn’t want to take it out too hard and then die at the very end, because I knew I was not 100% and didn’t want to risk anything,” Backholm said. “But then, [I] got through the second mile [and] I could definitely start feeling that I was sick at that point, but I still [pushed] through. I wanted to perform well for my team.”
Backholm remembered Heartbreak Hill was very difficult, but she pushed through it.
“For the last 1000 meters, it was a mental game, willing myself to continue, especially since my body wasn’t really in it, because it was sick,” Backholm said. “I was able to continue pushing, and then I saw people cheering for me, and the last stretch was giving everything I got to sprint to the finish line.”
Backholm said that qualifying for state championships means a lot for her as a senior, and that she is excited to take the opportunity to race and show the world her skills and improvements.
“I’m really proud of the entire girls team, and also all the guys,” Eisenberg said. “I’m really proud of the whole team, I would say for sure Olivia, she’s had just an incredible season [and] she’s PR’d by so much.”
