By Justin Hsieh, News Editor
Saturday morning, the Barons’ cross country team raced at their home meet, the annual Central Park Invitational at Huntington Central Park. Competing on their home turf against over 2,000 runners from 85 schools and multiple states, the Barons saw mixed performances consistent with the difficult terrain and hill climb of the course.
The Barons began with the Division 1 boys’ varsity race, debuting several sophomores and freshmen in varsity for a total of 11 runners. Although most of the varsity boys finished slower than usual, the race saw a spectacular performance by freshman Benjamin Prado, who set a personal record (PR) of 17:19 on the difficult three-mile course and finished fifth among the Baron boys. Junior Hunter Augustus also raced well, leading the Barons with a solid 16:22 finish.
“The race was good,” said Augustus. “We had a lot of fast competitors… Overall, I felt my performance was pretty good. I’ve been sick for a little bit, but even with that I was able to get the equivalent of a PR if it was a flat course… Overall I thought the team did really well; I feel really good for CIF because if this continues we’ll be able to have a lot of varsity members in the 16:30s and if we do that I think we’ll be able to go to CIF.”
In the Division 1 boys’ and girls’ junior varsity races, the Barons were led by juniors Aaron Sun and Lauren Berg, who ran respective times of 19:14 and 20:18. While the course once again slowed the Barons down, Berg managed to place third overall in her race.
“I feel good about my performance today; although I didn’t PR, I still competed very well,” said Berg. “A lot of these girls are very new to running, myself included. Nevertheless we are doing great and working hard. Coming in top 5 is also a new experience and I hope to do it again soon.”
While the boys’ freshman race saw similar results to the junior varsity races, the girls’ freshman team were led by Kiera Tallas to a seventh place overall finish. Tallas placed 20th out of 114 competitors with a 21:17.
“I felt really good, the uphill was a bit tiring but for the rest of it I felt good,” said Tallas. “I was just not worrying about my time and trying to pass as many people as I could. I’m very excited for the rest of our season, I can’t wait for League Finals because after doing this course I feel like I’m going to do a little better because I know what it’s like and I know how to pace better and I feel like I could get a lot stronger.”
The Barons concluded the day with the sophomore races, with a standout PR of 19:38 from Kenny Nguyen in the boys’ race.
“It was the most that I could do, so I’m pretty happy about that,” said Nguyen. “I feel like our team did pretty well and pushed our limits. For the rest of my season, my goal is to reach 19:30 and I’ve been racing closer to that so that’s my goal.”
Overall, the Barons gave solid performances given the difficult nature of the course. The Baron coaches, including Boys’ Coach Steven Knowles and Girls’ Coach Stacy Ferris, are optimistic about the team’s future for the season.
“I think overall, for this course they all did awesome,” said Ferris. “I’m super excited for the young team, because they are a super cohesive group and they all really support each other so for the future I’m excited. They’re all progressing every time I see them race. They’re excited to run, they’re excited for each other, and I think that going forward they’ll be a great cohesive team. Today, they really came out with a great positive attitude and they all handled it really well.”
