Cross country girls varsity win consecutive annual victory

For the second year in a row, the girls varsity team finished first place at Mt. San Antonio College on Oct. 26. Marking a historic achievement for CVHS, with the top five runners all placing in the top 30, victory was secured with a score of 83.

“They put in hard work, and it’s finally showing now; it’s paying off in the races,” said Coach Dino Cardiasmenos.

Sophomore Iliana Nierengarten was first of the team to finish, placing sixth with 19:50. 

“[The race] was pretty good,” said Nierengarten. “But going into it I actually had an injury going on with my hip flexor, so I was really nervous about that.” Fortunately, she was able to recover enough to run in the race, and she’s glad the team was able to do well after some initial worry.

“I was really just happy to finish the race as high up as I could, and I’m more happy about how the team did,” said Nierengarten.

Second of the team to finish was freshman Maria Kryuchkova, placing 16th with a time of 20:37. She was followed closely by senior Anna Dughi, who had the same time and was third of the team to finish.

“It was very fun, and I think I did pretty good,” said Kryuchkova. “I enjoyed hanging out with my friends.”

Girls varsity competed against 15 other schools, and as first place, the runner-up was La Quinta with a score of 116.

The boys varsity team finished in eighth place, scoring 215 points. At the start of the race, sophomore Isaac Ovalle unfortunately tripped, slowing down some of the team, but they managed to recover, resulting in a better score than last year. “It could have been better, but the place that we got was pretty good,” said boys team captain senior Nathan Quinby. 

Senior Maddeux Lim finished first of boys varsity, placing 10th with 16:55, an improvement of over a minute from last year. 

“The race was better than last year: less hills and like 10 degrees cooler,” said Lim. “My performance was ok, but I could probably do better on an easier course.”

Boys varsity faced off against 18 other schools, ahead of Northgate with 260, but behind San Leandro with a score of 193. 

The cross country teams will be racing next at the WACC Championships on Nov. 9.