Blood, sweat, and tears. The cross country team at Vista put their hearts and souls into every practice and race this season, with the best varsity boys’ team Vista has ever seen and a section title for the varsity girls’ team.

They struggled through the heat of the summer, getting up to run in the morning while most people were still in bed. Then when school started, the heat was too intense in the afternoon, so they got up even earlier. They had workouts at 5:30 a.m. so that they could still run. This hard work most definitely showed in the meets they ran this season.

At the Stanford Invitational, the varsity girls came in third place and the varsity boys ended up in nineteenth place, the best they have ever done as a team at Stanford.

A few weeks later they ran at the Clovis Invitational, which is on the course that the CIF State meet is held at. The girl’s team came in second place, losing to St.Francis High School from Mountain View, and the boys placed fifteenth.

After the Clovis Invitational, the team started to get ready for the end of the season, which is where all of the important meets happen. They ran hard at sub-sections and qualified themselves for sections.

The team was feeling strong and ready to go at sections. The girls’ varsity team had an overall great meet, winning their section and qualifying the team for CIF State Meet. Sophomore Sarah Anderson won the section, Junior Sierra Jaeger and Senior Clare Carroll both placed in the top ten. Junior Hannah Montague won the JV race, and the frosh/sophomore girls’ team placed fourth. The varsity boys’ team placed fifth, and the frosh/sophomore boys placed second.

Over Thanksgiving break, the girl’s team put the final pieces together and ran some great races at CIF State Meet. They placed fifteenth overall, just behind Del Oro. Anderson was Vista’s top girl once again, placing 21st with a season best of 18:47. Jaeger was second for Vista, placing 44th with a time of 19:15, and junior Weirui Xiao, who was third for Vista, came in 88th with a time of 20:19.

The girls and boys of Vista’s Cross Country team are all proud of their season and the work they put in this year.