M-A’s boys and girls cross country teams broke records at the Division 1 CCS championships at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course on Saturday afternoon, coming in first and second place, respectively.
“The team did phenomenal. It was a very historic day. We were all exceptionally pleased with how things went,” senior Cason Mitchell said. “We also were the fastest of any CCS team that day, which was amazing. We finally took down Bellarmine—they’ve been in control for the past few years.”
The course, which covered 2.95 miles, was dominated by the Bears. On the boys side of the competition, senior Aidan Sharp took second place with an astounding time of 14:58, followed closely by Mitchell, who finished in 15:06 and placed fourth. Junior Evan Chopra snatched eighth with a time of 15:18.
“We’re just gonna keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve been training for a long time and it’s worked out well, so I’m hoping we can just carry that momentum to state,” Chopra said.
Junior Benjamin Salceda took 16th, and despite injuring his knee early in the race, junior Grant Bennitt narrowly clinched the 21st spot. The team’s non-point-scorers, senior Brady Phan and junior Calvin Blanford, also put up strong performances with times just above 16 minutes. Overall, M-A accumulated 51 points, just enough to beat out the notoriously strong Bellarmine, and to solidify this Bears team as the fastest to ever run the Crystal Springs course in M-A history.
This marks the first time in M-A history that the boys cross country team will be competing at the state level and the first time that both the boys and girls teams qualified for state.
“We were the 10th fastest team to ever run on that Crystal Springs course, which has been around since the 1970s,” Mitchell said. “I’m really proud of this team and what they’ve been able to do so far, and we’re not done yet.”
The girls team put up a strong performance as well, led by sophomore Caroline Pflaum, who finished in 6th place with a time of only 18:21. Just behind her was senior Matilda Smart in 15th, who reached the finish line with a time of 19:16.
Freshman Chloe Lai, senior Page McGaraghan, and senior Louisa Pflaum took 17th, 18th, and 20th respectively, totaling 76 points for M-A and defeating Evergreen Valley by one point to earn the Bears second place. Additionally, freshman Mia Smith placed 23rd and sophomore Alli Brottem came in 27th, proving the Bears’ impressive depth.
“I’m super happy with how we ran, everyone did their part and because of that we were able to get to state. We’ve been building towards state all season so it’s gratifying to get an opportunity to go,” C. Pflaum said.
The Bears will hit the Woodward Park course in Clovis on the 29th for state championships.
