The boys and girls cross country teams won the CCS Div. 1 championships in Belmont, California on Nov. 16. Junior Ryan Chen placed first overall.
“We only had one goal today, which was to beat Bellarmine and win,” Chen said.
The boys team finished with five runners inside the top 20 and all six runners inside the top 30. Sophomore Yuval Goldberg, junior Rowan Gentin, sophomore Deven Koppala, and senior Kiran Haywood finished second, sixth, 12th, and 13th, respectively.
Although Chen finished first, he said that he couldn’t have done without his teammates.
“You don’t need to worry about your teammates if you trust them,” Chen said.
The girls team finished one minute and 40 seconds faster than the second place team, Evergreen Valley High School.
“It’s really amazing to see how all of our individual hard work comes together and pays off in the end,” senior Maya Eisenberg said.
The girls team placed four runners in the top ten: Eisenberg in third, sophomore Shira Kafka in sixth, junior Cassidy Misuraca in seventh, and sophomore Ada Bielinska in ninth.
As both teams won their divisions, the team qualified for states, which will take place on Nov. 30 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
“It’s been our goal for this whole season to win CCS and then perform well at states,” Eisenberg said. “So I’m just so proud of everyone.”
