![Rachelle Holmgren ['12] leads the lady Vikes early on in the race. she placed second for Paly.](https://vikingsportsmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/girls-xc-photo.jpg)
The Palo Alto High School girls’ varsity cross-country team finished 12th out of the 14 schools that competed at the Central Park Cluster meet on a mild afternoon Tuesday in Santa Clara.
Paly finished the meet with a total of 275 points, well behind the 72 points of first place Lynbrook and rival Gunn’s 94 points.
The Titans’ Sarah Robinson (‘14) won the race with a time of 13:40.6, over two minutes faster than Shaheen Essabhoy (‘13), the first Paly finisher. Essabhoy placed 34th overall finishing the 2.3 mile long course with a time of 16:00.5 and an average mile pace of 6:57.
Teammates Rachelle Holmgren (‘12), Lydia Guo (‘12), and Anna Dairaghi (‘13) clocked in with times of 16:11.5, 16:13.2 and 16:57.1 respectively, good for 44th, 46th and 75th place overall.
Tuesday’s meet was especially challenging for the Lady Vikes because all of the team’s top runners did not compete.
“I think the team did really well today, [especially] because we didn’t have any of our varsity
runners. Because they [ran] at the Stanford Invitational this past Saturday and weren’t allowed to run today,” co-captain Torie Nielsen (‘12) explained.
The runners, however, still came to the meet to cheer on their teammates, motivating them to work hard despite the absence of the team’s leaders.
“Everyone who wasn’t running was out there cheering us on. Without them, we tried our best,” Holmgren said.
Paly’s next race is the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) preview at Crystal Springs next Thursday.
