By: Taylor Phillips
The Mira Costa Cross Country team ran the team to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Cross Country Championships and placed very well as a team.
The Mira Costa Cross Country team placed extremely well in the CIF State finals at Woodward Park, Fresno on Nov. 30, with the girls team placing in fifth place overall out of 21 teams and senior Billy Atkinson placing in fifth place overall for the boys team.
“I think overall the team did very well,” sophomore Dalia Frias said. “We have been training so much for this and it all ended up paying off, so we are extremely happy.”
In the girls race, the Mustangs were led by Frias, who finished in third place overall, with a time of 17:38.4. Frias was the fastest Mustang of the day and her time was the fifth fastest time in school history, according to the Mira Costa Cross Country website. Frias time helped contribute to the girls’ top five overall finish.
“My strategy for the race was to just go out strong and stick with the front pack and not fall behind,” Frias said. “I knew that if I asserted myself from the beginning, it would be easier to stay upfront than going out more conservative and trying to catch up. It was pretty challenging in the middle of the race, which had the most hills, and it is hard trying to stay in the sine and not let anyone pass you.”
The next Mustang to cross the finish line was sophomore Ella Parsley in 62nd place with a time of 18:52.4. Senior Tia Pappas followed closely behind Parsley in 70th place with an overall time of 18:58.5. Senior Carmen Mel finished in 100th place with an overall time of 19:23.1 and freshman Heather Jenson finished close behind Mel in 105th with a time of 19:27.8. Senior Pnina Tofler finished in 120th place with a time of 19:45.7 and sophomore Kayla Kershaw finished in 155th place with a time of 20:33.6.
“The race was intense,” Pappas said. “During the starting mile, everyone ran much faster than usual because of the intensity of the race. There were a lot of hills, which made the race difficult, however our team trains a lot for hills so we were prepared.”
The Mustangs finished with an overall total time of 1:34:21 the team’s total average time was 18:53. The girls finished in fifth place overall as a team in California and many of the girls broke their personal records during the meet.
“I am very proud of how my team did at state,” Pappas said. “Everyone gave it their best effort and ran competitively. We had confidence in our training from the entire season and it showed through our results from the race.”
The boys team sent senior Billy Atkinson as the only racer, to represent Mira Costa in the CIF State Cross Country Championships. Atkinson finished in fifth place overall with a time of 15:08.3 in a field of 179 racers from high school teams all across the state. Atkinson’s overall time broke Mira Costa’s overall school record with his overall time.
“It felt really good to place that highly in the race because I’ve never been so dad up with such great competition,” Atkinson said. It was a bit of a bummer being the only Costa runner because my team wasn’t with me.”
The Mustangs finished very well this season. This was the final race of the season and both the girls and boys teams. The team finished their season with their banquet on Dec. 3.
“I think that the season went very well,” Frias said. “The team has improved so much as a while and during each race, we only got stronger.”
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