The Pacific League Finals took place at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 3. In this meet, Arcadia High School (AHS) competed against rival school Crescenta Valley High School (CVHS) in the battle of determining League Champion and which team will move onto California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Prelims.

Going into the race, both teams shared one goal, and that was to come out victorious, and in that tunnel vision, both teams had very different strategies. On the Boys Varsity team, the scoring 5 finished 3-4-6-11-13 which contributed to the final scoring of 37; and on the Girls Varsity team, the scoring 5 finished 1-10-14-18-22 which resulted in the final score of 65. 

Although this was the last race of the season for many, the opposite is said for sophomore Sophia Leung, as this was her first cross country race all season. After being out for previous races due to a stress fracture in her shin, she made a powerful comeback competing in the SophFrosh/JV race with a finishing time of 23:51. 

When asking Leung what contributed to her success at Finals, she said, “I think doing different workouts on the course and on the track definitely helped me prepare to run at faster paces more consistently.” 

Although this race was a first for Leung, for senior Kaitlyn Hsu, this was to be her last race in high school cross country. When asked how she felt about this, she said, “To be honest, I cried after the race finished because I was sad that it was over.” 

Finishing in the top 5 in Boys Varsity, senior Weber Lin went out onto the field with a plan: starting the race out with a mile time of 5:05, then negatively splitting the second mile by five seconds, and to go crazy the third mile. Although the splits during the actual race weren’t in conjunction with the goal pacing, Lin still achieved his goal of going under 15 minutes for three miles with a finishing time as well as a personal record time of 14:44. 

Lin said that the team’s strategy was to “stick with a teammate who is a little faster and try to hang on. For me, that means keeping up with Brandon, Kenta keeps up with me, William keeps up with Kenta, etc.” 

Although the team didn’t come out first in League, AHS Varsity Cross Country team will be moving forward into CIF Prelims being held on Nov. 11 at Mount San Antonio College. Good luck to those participating at CIFs and congrats to the AHS Cross Country team in completing another great season!

Photo Courtesy of Rachel Saw