In addition to preseason training, which takes place during the week before the start of the season, many of the boys committed to summer training. Hawthorne believes this extra training time will serve them well throughout the season.

“Everyone improved a lot over the summer, we did a lot more summer training,” Hawthorne said. “We did more runs, more mileage, more speed,” Hawthorne said.

Regarding the upcoming meet, taking place on Sept. 17, Hawthorne is confident that the team will be successful.

“We’ve all improved so much over the summer that I think we have a good easy spot in top four,” Hawthorne said.

In the 2010 cross- country season, the boys’ varsity team struggled to overcome the disadvantage of having no senior runners in the top seven. This year, 2010 varsity runner Corso Rosati (‘12) will not return.  Aside from this loss, the team now complete with three seniors and four juniors, is prepared to take on the season and meet their goals.

“We’re already a lot better than we were last year. We lost [Rosati], but other than that, the rest of the team has stepped up a lot,” Solgaard said. “Our juniors are a lot stronger than last year, and on top of that, we actually have seniors on the team.”

Their next meet is the Lowell Invitational on Sept. 17, in the San Francisco Golden Gate park.