Cross country teams win numerous victories in WACC meet

“We’re gonna do good, we’re gonna do good,” said boys team captain senior Nathan Quinby. “I have faith in this team.” His sentiments for the meet were optimistic, and they were satisfied with the amazing performances shown by all of the teams in the Oct. 16 races. 

The CVHS cross country teams achieved great placements across the board in their latest West Alameda County Conference (WACC) meet. It was the second WACC meet this season, held at the 3-mile long course at Hayward High School. 

The varsity teams were led by sophomore Iliana Nierengarten and senior Maddeux Lim, who placed second and sixth, respectively.

“It was a pretty tough race in general. I just stayed with the girl next to me the whole time and really tried my best to stick with her throughout the whole race,” said Nierengarten. “I couldn’t breath quite right, but I tried to push through that as best as I could, and I did.” Nierengarten had some trouble in the race due to being sick the week before, but still performed incredibly with a time of 18:12.

The girls varsity team won second place out of nine total schools, with a total score of 45, placing ahead of Bishop O’Dowd and behind Berkeley. The top five runners all finished in the top 20.

Junior Mika Gomes was second of the team to finish, placing seventh with a time of 19:34, a new personal record.

“It was a pretty good race. I feel like it was one of my best starts I’ve done this season,” said Gomes. “I got out in a good spot, and then I maintained that spot for as long as I could.”  

Also placing second against nine competing schools, the boys varsity team had its top five runners all finishing in the top 25, allowing for a score of 77. Unfortunately, they finished behind Bishop O’Dowd.

Being the first of the boys varsity team to finish the race, at a time of 16:05, senior Maddeux Lim placed sixth. It’s a personal record, but he’s striving to reach the level of former boys team captain and alumni Lucas Chang.

“I’m just getting started; I’ll be happy once I hit 15:20,” said Lim. “I just want to be as good as my former team captain, at the very least.”

Finishing in 12th place at 16:48, a personal record, boys team captain senior Levi Friesen was the second to finish for the boys varsity team. 

“The weather was amazing. The grass was a little muddy over by the baseball field, but other than that, the race was pretty good,” said Friesen.

Aside from the varsity teams, boys junior varsity and frosh/soph got first place out of their respective teams, and girls frosh/soph placed third.

A shout out to senior Lanikai Lependorf who achieved another personal record, improving her time by 11 minutes on the same course last year. After recovering from her diagnosis of anemia last year, she has been reaching PRs for every race. 

“I’ve been doing cross country all four years, but then I was getting slower every year, so that was kind of depressing,” said Lependorf. “But now I’m better, and it’s like all that hard work of practicing every day was actually worth it.”

The cross country teams’ next race will be the WACC Center Meet #3 on Oct. 23 at the Oyster Bay Regional Park–another 3-mile long course.