By Justin Hsieh, News Editor
This morning, the boys’ cross country team competed in the Larry Burgess Las Vegas Invitational, braving brutal desert temperatures to complete the three-mile race. Although the varsity boys fell slightly short of their hopes, coming in ninth as a team, the frosh-soph team blew past expectations with a spectacular second place finish.
The Barons first raced at 8 a.m., putting 7 runners in the frosh-soph division. Led by sophomores Shane Hill and Jonathan D’Ambrosio, who placed 16th and 22nd with respective times of 17:45 and 18:02, the boys placed second out of 18 schools. Five of the seven runners set personal records (PRs), and all seven runners placed in the top 80 out of 224 competitors.
“The team did great; we got second overall in the frosh-soph race, which was super exciting because I don’t think we expected that,” said D’Ambrosio. “Our hard training and lots of mileage we’ve put in over the summer [helped us do well]. I wasn’t able to race last week, but the beginning of the season for me at least has been going well so far. As far as everyone else, they’ve been getting their PRs and doing great.”
By 9:05 a.m., when the boys’ varsity team took off from the starting line, temperatures were well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. While forerunner senior Kyle Meis managed to set an impressive PR of 16:41, the heat took its toll on the other six runners, who fell short of their PRs. However, the varsity boys remained optimistic about their performances.
“I felt that the race was very good,” said junior Hunter Augustus, who followed Meis with a 17:13 finish in 39th place. “It was hot, but our teammates were able to run in a couple of small groups and that was able to increase our teamwork and allow us to work together and push each other forward.”
