Practice Meet Welcomes New Runners

The “Little Ed” cross country practice meet gave athletes new to the team a first taste of what it’s like to run over hill and dale.  The meet was held on Friday, September 4 at Hidden Valley Park in Martinez.

Taking turns by gender and level, the members of the Cougar squad ran the 2-mile course on a dirt path winding around and over many hills.

“We have a lot of young kids on the team so they’re all learning. It’s their first race, but we had a great turnout and they all did well. It’s a good stepping stone for our team,” said assistant coach Joey Woolridge.

Woolridge spoke to the team afterwards, commending them on their improvements and speaking about his expectations for the new season.

Senior Natasha McCullough also admired the freshmen performances. She said, “Teddy Buckley, who is very fast, did great today. Mia Strong as well.”

Freshman Mia Strong takes after her brother,  junior Jack Strong, a hard working runner despite his knee problem, McCullough explained.

Senior Hana Sun ran 12:46 to set the fastest girls’ time of the day.  Her time in 2014 was 13:04.

Sophomore Hannah Ruane, ran 12:54, nearly a minute faster than her performance of a year ago, to finish 2nd in the veteran race.

Senior Sarah Cella finished 3rd.

In the boys’ veteran race, junior Jared Yabu won in 10:33, dropping 31 seconds from his 2014 mark. 2nd was awarded to senior Jonathan Semenza, who was followed closely by senior Nathaniel Sauerberg.

Out of the 80 people who participated, 14 set new personal bests.