Photo Credit: John Hale

Senior speed-demon Joseph "Jocon" Ocon leads the team, followed by sophomores Jack Beckwith and Michael Hester.

The young varsity cross-country team looks to capture the CCS title.

As of September 27th, the Varsity boys’ team is in 5th place in CCS standings. A rank of first or second would put them into the CCS playoffs. As sophomore Jordan Scandlyn says, their team is “ridiculously young,” because the team includes just two seniors, Joseph Ocon and Jarrod Nixon. The other runners are juniors Spencer Berry, Brendy Hale and Jason McGhee, and sophomores Jack Beckwith, Michael Hester, and Scandlyn, who rotate into the seven running slots each race.

Ocon, one of the fastest seniors in the league, humbly states, “Most of the team can run faster than the average person, but not many of us could actually outrun, like, a bear or something. So, you know, we’re not that good in the larger scheme of things. Just against humans in the Northern part of the Bay Area.”

The girls’ team has its top three runners, Julia Sommer, Julia Vitale, and Zoe Moyer, out for an unknown time with calve muscle injuries, two stress fractures, and an unidentified disease, respectively. However, freshman Brittany Sheuch, sophomore Shayda Abadi, junior Caitlin Kenney, and senior co-captains Kristy Perez, Brigid McCurdy and April Melendez have picked it up and helped M-A build. Perez looks to the future, saying, “The varsity girls’ team currently has a lot of fun training. We have some strong freshmen runners and with Julia, Julia, and Zoe back next year, the team will have a lot of potential to do well.”

At Half Moon Bay on September 10th, the boys’ varsity team finished in second place behind Carlmont High School, with senior Joseph Ocon finishing in 2nd place overall with a time of 12:30, one of his best times. Jack Beckwith and Michael Hester completed the race in 6th and 8th places respectively. The varsity girls finished in 6th place out of 17 teams, with freshman phenom Brittany Scheuch, placing 11th with a time of 16:01 and sophomore Zoë Moyer finishing 24th.

At the Lowell Invitational Meet in Golden Gate Park on Saturday, September 19th, the Varsity boys placed third thanks to Joseph Ocon’s 8th place finish and Michael Hester’s 13th place finish. Three other runners, Jack Beckwith, Spencer Berry, and Jason McGhee, placed in the top 20 at one of the largest meets in the Bay Area. At the same meet, the varsity girls finished 10th in large part to freshman Brittany Scheuch’s 27th place finish.

Both teams will unfortunately be missing Homecoming because they will be going to Mt. Sac, the largest high school cross-country meet in the US, located in Southern California.