The Palo Alto High School girls’ cross-country team finished in third place at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) center meet at Baylands park in Sunnyvale on Thursday,Oct. 20.
Katie Foug (‘15) placed first for the Lady Vikes and third overall, behind only Sarah Robinson (‘14) of Gunn and Lalida Maokhamphiou (‘12) of Wilcox. Close behind Foug was second-place Paly finisher Chika Kasahara (‘13), who placed fifth overall.
Foug believes that running near Kasahara benefits both runners.
“When we run together, I think we run a little better because we push each other to go faster”, Foug said. “At the end, I just had a little more of a kick.”
Foug and Kasahara finished with times of 19:42.2 and 20:06.7 respectively. Coach Paul Jones was happy with the team’s performance in the meet.
“I was really pleased with the way the girls ran,” Jones said.
The team is now looking forward to the City Championship, League Championship, Central Coast Section Championship and State Championship meets in the coming month. Foug is optimistic about the team’s chances in the SCVAL League Championship race.
“I think we stack up pretty well, because we had two girls in the top five [today],” Foug said.
Jones is cautious to predict great things, however, remembering that there are a few teams in the league that the Lady Vikes have yet to compete against.
“We have not seen Monta Vista, and they will be at our league meet,” Jones said.
The team’s next race is the Palo Alto City Championship at Gunn High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
