The cross country team wrapped up its championship season on Thursday, December 5, at its annual awards ceremony. Due to campus construction, this year’s event was held in the Miramonte cafeteria.
The celebration recognized the varsity girls’ league, section and state championship titles, as well as Aidan Goltra’s individual state title and the long list of divisional championships and all-league selections.
The ceremony began with a season highlight video by Sherman Lee, father of athletes Sam and Max Lee.
Each squad was introduced by a veteran athlete, who provided a synopsis of the season and pointed out special accomplishments by various individuals.
Jared Yabu, the only freshman to be recognized as a varsity letterman, said that the fall season was memorable. “I definitely gained a lot of experience being with kids who were 2-3 years older than me. The competition was a lot higher.” he said.
Later in the program, assistant coach Andy Lindquist introduced the Coach Walsh award, named after former Campolindo cross country coach and current physical education teacher, Chris Walsh. Representing the highest levels of integrity, loyalty and passion for the sport, the award went to seniors Omid Boozapour and Haley Shipway.
The Logan Coe award recognized 23 athletes who had 100 percent practice attendance throughout the fall season.
The DFAL Varsity “All League” team selections were also announced. First Team selections were junior Brighie Leach, junior Mary Orders, sophmore Sarah Cella, and junior Rachel Johnson for the girls, and seniors Aidan Goltra and Ben Weinberg for the boys.
Brighie Leach, Mary Orders, Rachel Johnson, Aidan Goltra and Ben Weinberg also earned “All-Section” honors.
Weinberg, who wore a boot on his left leg after suffering stress fractures in his state meet performance, said, “I think we had a really good season. We put in a lot of miles over the summer, trained hard and stayed focused.” Weinberg’s gutsy state meet race helped his varsity boys’ team finish 4th.
Yabu said that running on the team taught him to be a better athlete. “I learned I couldn’t make excuses and I trained smarter,” he said.
“It’s not about instant gratification, it’s where you want to be in a month, or a year,” added Weinberg.
Both Yabu and Weinberg credited much of their success to coach Chuck Woolridge. Weinberg said, “He’s a really great coach, he helped me a lot, and guided me through. He comes off as really tough and intimidating at first, but it’s not an easy sport and you have to have that mentality.”
