Over the past couple of years, the Monte Vista Cross Country team improved dramatically.  Two years ago, one athlete qualified for CIF All-State (“State”).  Last year, three runners made it to State.  This year, the entire team has goals of qualifying for State, which is this Saturday (November 11).  

     If the boys varsity team runs well, they will place in the top bracket of Division V at the CCS Championship meet.  The top teams automatically enter into State.  Coach Erik Beckmen has mapped out the times the guys will need to run to beat their competition- Menlo Atherton and Crystal Springs.  “They will need to run their best race that they’ve done all year,” Coach Beckmen says, and “they will have to hit their times that I give them.”  All five will need to run between 17:00 and 17:55 minutes for the 3 mile course.  

     On the other hand, since the girls varsity team doesn’t have enough runners, they will need to qualify individually to make it to Fresno.  Beckmen anticipates they will need to run less than 20:45 minutes in order to be in the top 14, which is the standard to qualify.  At the previous meet at Crystal Springs in October- during the heatwave- they came in 18th in 21:17 and 38th in 22:08.  Adding to the challenge of the extreme heat wave, the top female runner, Kylie Brunelli, was just coming back from an injury, and second-fastest, Finely Castros, was dealing with an overuse injury.  Since then, they have healed and trained diligently, and they hope to be faster at this next race.  

     Although this is a big goal, it aligns with the team’s progress for the entire year.  This was the first year that the boys varsity team was crowned League Champion.  Additionally, Brunelli was 3rd in the league, and Castro placed 14th.  

     “If they run what they’ve done all season, they could do it. I think it’s all mental for a couple of them. And they can just break through that mental block, they can do it,” Beckmen believes. 

-Kylie Brunelli for the Mustang Metropolitan