Los Altos High School’s cross country teams ran in the California Interscholastic Federation state championships last Saturday, with the boys team finishing as 15th out of 24 teams and the girls placing in 7th out of 25 teams. 

There were 201 participants in the Division 2 boys race and 196 in the Division 2 girls race, with each race having seven runners from Los Altos High.

The top three boys runners were sophomore Samuel Hurst earning 65th place with a time of 16:12.5, junior Sreyas Kadiyala finishing in 68th with a time of 16:15.4 and sophomore Taran Davies with a place of 86th and a time of 16:27.6. 

The top three girls runners were senior Jasleen Sidhu ending in 18th place with a time of 18:19.6, junior Emily Soobrian in 33rd with a time of 18:42.8 and junior Axelle Allanic ending in 70th  with a time of 19:23.6.

This was the boys runners’ first state meet, which means the team has room for growth next year, head coach Steph MacKenzie said.

“This was definitely a learning year for all of [the boys],” MacKenzie said. “Next year when they come back as seniors and juniors, we think they can do really well.” 

The runners also considered this year a learning experience, and have even more motivation to come back stronger next year. 

“It’s our first time and we’re still learning a lot,” Hurst said. “We’re gonna come back next year, and we’re gonna be stronger.” 

Team members expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance at the meet and felt that the team did well overall, especially considering that a few got personal records. 

“I’m really happy with how I did, and I finally got a PR at this course,” Sidhu said. “The team did really well altogether, and it was a good way to finish off.” 

Allanic said the girls hope to qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals meet next year.

“We just really want to come back here, and hopefully go to NXN,” Allanic said. “It sounds like a really fun trip.” 

While training and maintaining athletic shape for the meet and CCS qualifications was difficult, MacKenzie said that their hard work showed in their race results.

“It’s always hard going up and down with training and being in perfect form for every race … it’s really hard to get them feeling great on the same day,” MacKenzie said. “But overall, I’d say they all ran really well.”