On Oct. 20th, cross country ran in the most iconic race in the world. This sixty-five year old race took place at San Antonio College in Walnut, California.
Mt. Sac included almost twelve-thousand runners and over one hundred races. Teams present were some of the top ten in the state. After a long two point nine mile race, Carlsbad’s cross country boys came out with a second place overall finish.
“This race set our standards and expecatations really high,”senior Christian Freeman said. “It puts us second in the state.”
The season thus far for the boys has flown by, with the team winning every race. Naturally, they were not too worried about the competition they would face at Mt. Sac because they felt so well prepared.
“We felt like the day was going to be fantastic. We saw the weather was good and felt great,” senior Sean Pruitt said.
Entered into the team race, the boys had a lot of competition from other top schools in the state. The other leading teams included Whittier High School, Vista Murrieta High School, and Arcadia High School- who ended up beating Carlsbad to get first place.
“Arcadia may have gotten first, but they did not beat us by that much,” Pruitt said. “If we all come together I think we have a chance at beating them at state.”
Leading the Carlsbad boys was Freeman, giving them a fourth place finish. Not too far behind were many of his other teammates including his brother Kevin Freeman in sixth and Pruitt in seventh. To tally up the final team score each runners place was added up to make up a total score. The school with the overall lowest score wins the team overall competition.
“I ended up getting fourth place behind two people who are nationally ranked,” Freeman said.
With such a great finish under their sneakers, cross country boys look forward to dominating in CIF. This race gives the boys a good representation on how they will end up in CIF and even state.
“We hope to win everything, but we really just wanna get top three at state,” Freeman said.
This race not only gives Carlsbad boys a huge confidence boost, but also a motivator to keep working as hard as they have been to continue their success.
“If you do well at Mt. Sac then you know you will do well in both CIF and state,” Pruitt said . “The team knows this season will end up being a huge success.”
