Both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams advance to CCS after competing at the SCVAL Championships Tuesday at the 2.95 mile long Crystal Springs course.

The boys’ team finished first in the El Camino League led by Lucas Matison (‘15). Matison ran at an average mile pace of 5:15, taking first place in the varsity race with a time of 15:31.

Kent Slaney (‘17) and Naveen Pai (‘17) came in second and third for the Vikings, finishing in 7th and 11th place, respectively. After strong performances from all seven members of the varsity squad, the boys’ team clinched a first place victory over the other seven schools in the league.

The frosh-soph boys mirrored the results of the varsity team, also coming in first place as team. In the frosh-soph race, however, the Vikings swept the race with Paly runners coming in first, second, and third place.

“I couldn’t be more proud, just across the board…they were incredible,” Coach Kelsey Feeley said, “A season’s worth of work really showed today with both teams winning the league title”.

The girls’ team finished third led by captain Bryn Carlson (‘16) with a sixth place finish. Carlson finished with a time of 19:16 followed by Maddie Feldmier (‘17) in ninth place with a personal best time of 19:58.

Captain Portia Barrientos shared her thoughts on her team’s performance.

“I’m very proud of the team’s performance today we pulled out a strong race and our teams full capability really showed by having all seven varsity runners healthy enough to race,” she said.

This was the first race of the season where both the boys’ and girls’ top seven runners were healthy enough to compete. On the boys’ side, Slaney ran his second race after spending the season recuperating from an injury. Additionally, Samuel Desré (‘16) has spent much of his season recovering from a stress fracture.

The varsity girls’ team has also been hindered by injuries with Barrientos, Feldmier, and Emily Zhang (‘16) all being unable to run at various points throughout the season.

Despite their injury plagued seasons, both teams will go on to race in the Central Coast Section (CCS) championship on Saturday, Nov. 15th at Toro Park in Salinas, California.

“Every single runner was incredible today,” Feeley said, “I can’t wait to see how they do next week”.