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Scott Engle ‘28 and Paul Hapka ‘28 darted past their competitors as they started their second lap. Throughout the year Engle and Hapka have often worked together to pace each other and stay steady while running; however, their partnership helped them to excel more in this race than ever before.
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Arms around each other, Evelyn Bell ‘28 led Westwood Cross Country Varsity Girls group talk before the last race of the season. Starting a month before school with early mornings and numerous group runs, Varsity girls come together one last time before the biggest race of the season.
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Taking teamwork to a new level, Rylan Madland ’28, John Miller ’28, and Jeffery Tu ’28 stay together to keep a steady pace. Unlike most races, these boys decided to stick together and pick off other racers one by one as they blast through the course.
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Starting their race off with a bang, Jasper Hogan ‘28 and Benjamin Harvey ‘28 lead Westwood’s JV Cross Country out of the gate. After being top racers all year with multiple Varsity appearances, Hogan and Harvey raced on JV to give seniors one last Varsity race of the season.
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Coming to an end, Myra Kandhari ‘28 gives it her all during the last two hundred meters of her race. After a season long of hard work Kandhari had made it down to the final stretch of districts, where she put her seasons worth of training to work giving it her all.
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Narrowing down on the last eight hundred meters of his race, Benjamin Gage ‘26 tries his hardest for his final race in High School. Four years of early mornings everyday for the first months of school had gone by leading up to the moment he finished off his High School career strong.
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Sivin Naik ‘26 and Kelan Hogan ‘26 sprint out of the gate for their last race while being in High School. After a season long of races had passed with Naik and Hogan leading their fellow Cross Country Varsity runners to the finish they did it one last time.
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Finishing up her second lap, Jacqueline Stone ’27 keeps a quick pace as she begins to start her kick. After passing by the same pond once Stone passed by it for her second and final time displaying all of the time she had put into Cross Country as she finished her race.
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Staying together as one, Preeya Panwalker ’28, Theresa Bell ’26, Reese Miller ’28, and Violet Everard ’29 start their race off in a fierce group. After a valiant start the girls were sticking together in a group to keep one another going strong before slowly splitting up as some started their kick.
As the sun rose for one last Cross Country meet of the school year, the Warriors prepared to push their all into their last meet of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 8th. Exceeding expectations the Warriors finished top five, a new best on the season for Westwood.
After having countless early mornings and some late night runs, Westwood had poured their all in practice all season long. Many runners were more than ready, some even racking in 40 mile weeks consistently throughout the year.
“I feel like my time has gotten a lot better throughout the year,” Reese Miller ‘28 said. “I also have gotten new personal records at most of my meets so it’s been good.”
Miller wasn’t the only runner hitting personal records, many other runners had very similar progression with many of them hitting new records most meets. Despite the fact the course had some extra mileage, many runners still had high scoring performances.
“The extra mileage affected my time kinda hard, however I think the same could be said for everyone else,” John Magdaleno ‘28 said.” I think everyone ran great today and if it weren’t for the mileage then I think I would have gotten a new personal record to end the season.”
Although runners faced many challenges like the additional mileage, most varsity runners were able to beat the heat, however JV was not. Starting the day off cool it quickly heated up allowing varsity runners, like Miller to avoid the warm temperature, but other teams not so much.
“I’m not the type of runner that excels in high temperatures compared to cooler temperatures so I just took it a little easier today and ran around a twenty-one minute which is a little slower than my usual workout pace,” Jeffery Tu ‘28 said.
With Westwood placing third, many seniors were able to leave the team on a high note, not only leaving behind high scores, but a lasting impact for their younger teammates. The cross country runners now patiently wait for track season to begin in early February.
“This season stuck out to me because I think that I have grown really close to my teammates and that we really realized we are here for each other,” Theresa Bell ‘26 said.“I am so grateful for them and for being able to come out here and race one last time.”
