BHS cross country team competes in San Diego Invitational

On Sept. 28, Bonsall High School's cross country team participated in the Coach Downey XC Classic meet at Morley Field in San Diego. Unlike a regular meet, invitationals allow multiple schools of different divisions to compete, and do not count towards CIF. It's a great opportunity for cross country runners to light-heartedly practice in a competitive atmosphere.

Bonsall High's Division 5 team, whose boys varsity made their way to the 2017 CIF State Championships, ran the 5,000 meter course as two enormous laps around the park against many other high-quality runners. Three groups of runners, all coached by Alan Greene, competed for BHS.

The junior varsity team, consisting of Lucas Lopez (22:15), Ezekiel Maletych (23:41), Greggor Sanchez (24:11), Henrik Nylund (25:15), Taylor Dyal (25:55), Conrado Acevedo (26:47) and Gattison Lewis (30:07), placed eighth. The boys' varsity team, consisting of Max Collier (18:09), Austin Alanis (18:36), Ethan McFarland (20:09), Gunnar Streich (20:26), Nicholas Murphy (20:29), and Hunter Robillard (20:44), placed fifth.

The girls' varsity team, consisting of Milana Collier (23:24), Sara LaRussa (24:55), Abigayle Ford (25:45), Isabella Ford (25:46) and Faith Gioia (26:44), placed fourth.

These scores were calculated by taking the placements of each group's top five runners, which were then tallied up as points to be compared with the other schools in their division.

Runners Calvin Hamilton and Delainy Reinard were unable to attend the invitational.

Varsity runner Isabella Ford said, "We're proud of the team. We've been training hard and the work is paying off." The cross country runners believe that they compete well in their division, and are striving to improve even further as the season progresses, according to boys varsity runner Austin Alanis.

Faith Gioia added a tip on how the team can better compete, "We could try not starting off so quickly in order to preserve our energy and stamina for the end of our meets." If practiced, this tip could help attract more athletes to the school, as the better Bonsall High's sports teams perform, the more it will have to offer to its prospective students.

"Even though we don't have a lot of sports like a bigger school, we still are growing as a school and could possibly get more sports teams in the future," said Gioia.

In the years to follow, BHS hopes that school expansion and an access

to exceptional local runners will result in the Cross Country team's advancement to Division 4 in CIF.