Cross-Country Boys Rank Third, Girls Qualify for CIF Preliminaries

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NATE GARCIA
Assistant Sports Editor

On Nov. 3, the boys’ and girls’ varsity cross-country teams entered the Almont League finals ranked number three behind the Schurr Spartans and the Montebello Oilers. Both teams needed to maintain their third-place spots in order to advance to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) preliminaries.
“I am very proud of the entire cross-country team this year […] no one complained and [everyone] put in their full effort to place in this league meet,” senior Maria Virgen said.
At the end of the race, the girls maintained third, which led them to CIF on Nov. 11. At the preliminaries, junior co-captain Luz Badillo came in first at 22:34, followed by sophomore Anhayte Guajardo who came in at 22:43.
“It was a fun experience knowing that we did not only motivate each other, but we [also] challenged each other to become better,” sophomore Karen Tran said.
The boys ended up tying for third alongside the Bell Gardens Lancers, but did not qualify for CIF since the Lancers had defeated Alhambra in the first league meet. Although the boys did not advance to CIF, Head Coach Sandra Rodriguez felt that both teams met their full potential.
“I am very satisfied with the [team’s] performance. They all improved from last year and we are gradually moving up,” Rodriguez said.