The Palo Alto High School girls’ cross-country team finished in third place at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) Championship meet this Tuesday Nov. 1 at Crystal Springs.

The team finished 26 points behind Mountain View High School and four points behind Gunn High School.

Sarah Robinson (‘14) of Gunn won the meet with a time of 17:32. Katie Foug (‘15) finished first for the Lady Vikes and fifth overall with a time of 19:30, followed closely by Chika Kasahara (‘13), who came in second for Paly and sixth overall with a time of 19:34. Rounding out the top five for the Lady Vikes were Audrey DeBruine (‘14), Rachelle Holmgren (‘12) and Sophia Robinson (‘15).

Holmgren believes that a new race strategy helped her finish higher than she normally might.

“I tried to stay with Audrey for the first mile,” she said. “The last two miles, I just kept her within my sight.”

The strategy worked perfectly, with only eight seconds separating Holmgren’s finish from DeBruine’s. Holmgren’s approach to the course also may have contributed to her strong race Tuesday.

“I just take one uphill, one downhill, or one flat stretch at a time, because it’s all pretty split up,” she said. “The course just feels shorter to me than most courses.”

While DeBruine was quick to praise the team’s race, she also believes that the team needs to start looking forward to their next race, the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championships.

“This one, we were kind of guaranteed a spot [in CCS], so it wasn’t really high stakes,” DeBruine said.

One interesting occurrence during the race was that neither Nora Rosati (‘13) nor Lydia Guo (‘12) finished the race. Rosati has been battling an injured ankle, and chose to withdraw after falling during the race. Guo then stopped to assist her teammate, and did not finish either.

According to DeBruine, the team has a good shot at beating Gunn in the CCS Championship meet and going to states as long as all the runners are able to make it through the race.

“If Nora finishes, I think we have a pretty good chance,” DeBruine said.

The Lady Vikes’ next race will be the CCS Championship at Crystal Springs on Nov. 12