By Andrew Hsieh
Full disclosure: Andrew Hsieh is on the boys’ cross country team.
After a strong performance at the Sunset League Finals two weeks ago, on Saturday, the Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) boys’ and girls’ cross country teams endured a tough day of racing, taking sixth and fifth place, respectively, at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Preliminaries at the Mt. SAC cross country course in Walnut, California.
The three-mile course, which the Barons have already raced once this season at the Mt. SAC Invitational, features three main hills: the Switchbacks, Poop Out Hill and Reservoir Hill. A combination of these three hills and the grueling heat made racing a challenge for the runners. Some injuries also dropped the Barons’ chances at making it to the CIF Finals.
The boys’ team raced first at 9:42 a.m. when temperatures were already reaching upwards of 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Rounding the turns and climbing up the hills, the Barons held strong positions in the race, but finished in sixth place with 184 points. The Barons needed to place in the top four of their heat in order to qualify for CIF Finals.
The boys’ top runner, junior Ben Prado, went into the race hoping to individually qualify for CIF Finals by placing in the top six of his heat. He fell just short of that coming in seventh place with a time of 15:53.8, one second behind the sixth-place finisher.
“I was counting the people in front of me, making sure that I was in the top six,” Prado said. “[But], I got seventh. I didn’t quite do what I wanted to do which was to qualify for finals.”
Despite the team and Prado not making it to finals, boys’ cross country coach Steven Knowles maintained a positive attitude.
“I was hoping with the recent sicknesses and injuries we’ve had on the team that we [would] still perform well and I thought we did very well,” Knowles said.
One big setback for the boys’ was sophomore Diego Alonso, one of the top four runners, who didn’t race due to an ankle injury. But, the team stepped up, notably freshman Ethan Kwong running his first and last varsity race of the season and finishing with a time of 18:01.5.
“I think [Kwong] did really well. He ended up finishing fourth for us as a freshman, which means we have great things to look forward to on our team. We have a strong team coming back next year,” Knowles said.
After the boys’, the girls’ team started their race at 11 a.m., where the temperatures were nearing 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite their top runner, senior Kaho Cichon, not racing, the girls had a promising start, but near the one-mile mark after the Switchbacks, senior Megan Feitz and junior Evelyn To passed out.
“At that point, you change your whole mindset and just get your remaining five runners to finish the race without going down too,” girls’ cross country coach Stacey Ferris said.
While the remaining five girls may not have physically gone down, seeing two of their top runners drop out of the race discouraged them to finish the race strong. With each runner from the girls’ team running slower-than-usual times, the girls finished in fifth place with 161 points, 72 points away from the fourth-place team.
“The girls were obviously disappointed and sad about not advancing to finals, but the conditions were terrible today,” Ferris said. “[However], all seven girls came together at the finish line to support and lean on each other, and that, to me, was a win.”
Both teams’ performances at the CIF Southern Section Preliminaries fell short of their goals, but they are looking forward to a break after schedule changes brought about due to COVID-19 squeezed two cross country seasons and one track season in a calendar year.
With many promising new runners, both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams are looking forward to their next cross country season next fall as well as the upcoming track season in the spring.
“We’re going to come back [for] track and we’re going to be very competitive,” Knowles said.
