As we reach the middle of the season, the Boys Cross Country team’s performance has been nothing short of amazing, placing very well at their meets. Their upcoming meets are very important, with the Orange County Championships taking place on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18.
Their latest meet, the Clovis Invitational, was on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11. The players described the competition as very tough and requiring lots of hard work and talent.
The team felt the challenge was just what they needed to motivate themselves to be their best. The difficulty of the run suited them and gave them a glance of what lies ahead for the last couple of meets of the season.
The top runners in the boys varsity three-mile were Parker Mcadam (12), running a 16:12.10, Edward Hawking (12) who ran a 16:22.80 and Karson Brunke running a 16:23.00 and ending up in the upper quartile of all 250 runners.
The team is now getting ready for one of the most important events of the entire season, the championships, so they are actively getting ready for the meet, especially due to the amount of competition going into the race. There are a total of 72 schools running this meet, the most competition our Cross Country team has seen all season. Most schools are D1, the same division as Aliso.
Jasper Crowther Townsend (10), a runner for the Aliso Niguel Varsity Cross Country team, said that, “The coaches have a high expectation for us going into the championships and for the rest of the season because they are our most important races.”
The boys are getting put on a high workload, especially for the upcoming meets: the SVL League Finals on Nov. 7 and CIF Southern Cross Country Preliminaries. These are what the boys have preparing for all season.
This means that the stakes are high, and since their whole season has come down to these last races, all the challenges, practices, and past meets have been preparation for these races.
Emiliano Abarca (9), a JV runner, says, “I’m looking forward to the upcoming races and what the other schools have in competition so I know that we have to run our fastest.”
The boys are really training to do their best, especially with high stakes like these. The team has no doubt that they will perform at their best, especially to get that top three finish that they have been aiming for all season.
As more than half the season comes to a close, the Boys Cross Country team has been impressive. Going into the last and most important meets, the boys will do their best to close out a phenomenal 2025-26 season that had lots of challenges and improvements.
