Girls’ cross country grabbed the top spot on the podium at the 2017 CIF State Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park on November 25. The boys’ team placed 5th.

“[In] the state meet you have to qualify,” explained sophomore Ellie Guthrie.  Her squad did so by virtue of their 1st place finish at the North Coast Section Championships a week earlier at Hayward High School.

Heading into the race, the girls’ squad was expecting to battle for the win. “We entered the meet ranked 2 and the girls felt that it was realistic to consider contending for the title,” said head coach Chuck Woolridge. 

Campolindo started the race in good position.  At the mile mark the team scores showed the Cougars leading over top ranked La Costa Canyon by 4 points.

By the 2nd mile however, the girls had fallen to 2nd place, behind by 12 points.

“The 2nd mile was where we were supposed to make up a lot of ground,” said Guthrie.  Unfortunately, Guthrie and her teammates actually lost places over the middle mile.  One of the team’s consistent scorers during the regular season, Alicia Hober, was having particular trouble with the warm conditions and poor air quality.  Prior to the race, she had symptoms of a head cold.  After a strong start, the sophomore fell to the 6th position for the Cougars.

Also struggling, sophomore Paloma Hancock, who missed the league championships due to shin pain, but who had been the team’s number 3 scorer for most of the season, began to experience abdominal cramping.

But the team battle was not over.  In the final stretch, La Costa Canyon’s top runner fell to the ground, apparently suffering from exhaustion.  She was eventually carried off of the course.

“Our top finisher, Jenna Miles, obviously deserves a lot of credit for providing the low stick for the team,” Woolridge said.  Miles finished 12th overall, and was the 1st finisher for the Cougars. 

Emma Overell was the next Campolindo athletes to cross the finish line.  The senior, who had overcome her own setbacks with injury earlier in the season, landed the 15th place overall.

When the dust had settled, Campolindo was at the top of the leader board, earning its 4th state title.

Edward Buckley led the boys’ performance, finishing in 22nd place with a time of 16:07.

While the section meet brought together over 100 teams of the NCS, the state meet was another level of competition, with the best teams and thousands of spectators from across the state converging on Woodward Park.

“I was quite nervous honestly because there were so many people there in terms of spectators, and I just knew that this was a big race and everyone would try to go out as hard as they could,” said senior co-captain Andrew Tseng.  While it was Tseng’s 3rd year on the squad, it was his 1st time competing in the state championship race. 

“On the boys side we entered the race ranked 7 overall, and their goal was to beat their ranking,” said Woolridge. 

The team finished in 5th place.

“I think we also had great contributions from Ethan Sauerberg, who is a 4 year veteran finishing 3 for us in the race but also contributing incredible leadership throughout the course of the  season,” said Woolridge.

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