Ready, set, go! At the music of the whistle, runners of Sage Hill School Cross Country Team stream through air, as fast as lightning during the meet at St. Michael’s Prep. Congratulations to all the Cross Country Teams for placing 2nd place!

“The course has a lot of uphill parts, and it is really hot,” said Freshman runner Pengcheng Zhu. “The conditions make it hard to run.”

As hard as it seems, the team is ready again for an invitational on October 19, where around 100 teams compete at Mount Sac. This meet is a way for the players to display their talents on a greater field of competition.

“Our real team goal are League Finals, which is November 2nd,” said coach Nate Miller. “[The team] will try to be as competitive as possible. The top team is St. Margaret’s, and they’re really good. It will be unlikely to upset them, but we’re a strong 2nd place, so we hope to keep that.”

As he further explains, every team competes at the League Finals, and the top 3 teams there will make CIF. Preliminaries and finals are two parts that make up the CIF. Coach Miller hopes that Sage Hill will reach the finals.

Senior captain Kylen Patel said, “I hope that both the boys and girls’ teams make it into CIF state, which is the top 7 teams.”

The competitions will be difficult, but the boys’ and girls’ team captains both believe they can make the CIF state competition.

Senior captain Maya Jaffe said, “in order to reach the finals, the team is trying to close the gap [between runners] to be closer together.”

Cross Country always felt like an individual sport, but really everyone plays their part to help the team to victory. Senior captain Alice Warden is really excited for the season.

She said, “I like the people. The team is fun. I like being part of a team. And of course, you cannot forget the running!” Go lightning!