On Nov. 13, the girls’ cross country and junior varsity teams competed in the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) championship at the College of Marin Indian Valley Campus. The varsity team won with 39 points, beating San Marin, Branson, Marin Catholic, Novato, Tam, San Rafael and Archie Williams.
The junior varsity (JV) team secured a win as well by beating their top competitors, Archie Williams and Tamalpais High School (Tam). Junior Jaden Vangorder contributed to that win by coming in second place during her run.
“It wasn’t a difficult course,” Vangorder said. “Being in the JV league, I am not a huge competitive runner, so I probably would have gone faster and gotten first if I was more into racing.”
Senior team captain Marley Nacco led the way to victory, finishing in fifth place with a time of 18:25.
“This was a really big win, and Redwood won out of all of Marin County,” Nacco said.
Although the race proceeded after heavy rainfall and through windy weather, that didn’t stop parents from coming and supporting their athletes. A large crowd of supporters watched as the varsity girls took their places, shivering from the cold but not lacking a smile on their faces. The environment felt energetic; you wouldn’t have been able to tell this was a high-stress race.
“I don’t run that well on stress…I try to calm myself down and find out why I’m stressed. Most likely, it’s always because I’m scared I will give up on myself.” Nacco said.
Although stressful, surrounded by the support of her teammates and parents, Nacco pushed through, and Redwood secured a victory, barely beating Branson, Tam and Archie.
“It was close between our top competitors, Tam, Branson and Archie. Tam was one of our biggest competitors, and we ended up coming out [on] top,” said Nacco.
The environment might have been stressful, but the Redwood cross-country team’s community stayed united.
“The hardest part of it wasn’t the stress. I wanted to run with my friends because I would rather push them to be better than push myself,” Vangorder said.
Like Vangorder, Nacco believes team bonding and connection are aspects cross country takes seriously.
“You are running for a greater purpose than just yourself, which is the team,” Nacco said.
After Redwood’s victory, the top ten runners will advance to the North Coast Section) (NCS) playoffs at Hayward High School on Nov. 23rd. The rest of the team will have their last practice the day after and have the option to compete in a one-mile race.
