On a wet Saturday afternoon at Hayward High School, the girls cross country team made their permanent mark in school history by winning an NCS title for only the fourth time in school history. Furthermore, senior Olivia Williams made a case to be remembered as the most impressive female athlete in school history by winning her second NCS title.
The girls raced at 1 PM, the last of ten races that experienced on and off showers. 80% of the three mile course is normally made up of grass or dirt. However, after hundreds of runners made their way through the course, the girls were left to contend with a slippery and muddy path. Regardless of being listed as pre-race favorites, the wet conditions added an element of uncertainty that the squad of seven navigated masterfully.
After the starting gun, the girls did their best to move to the front and establish their place early. Through the first mile, Williams was in a four-person battle for first place. She followed cautiously through the muddy path 5 seconds behind first place at the mile marker. She used the pavement at the start of the second mile to move into third, and in just another half mile she took the lead and never looked back. By the second mile marker she had a 10 second gap to 2nd place, a margin that would grow another six seconds by the race’s end. Williams won the race in a time of 18:02.
Through all of this, sophomore Neve Murphy was in a battle to stay in the top 10. Murphy made timely surges in the third mile going up the last hill of the course. She ultimately finished 8th, nearly passing another runner at the line.
Senior and freshman duo, Megan Yee and Anju Sekhon, practically raced the entire season together. So it was no surprise that they started the race early side by side in the top 25 through the first mile. They moved up together through the field and were in the top twenty with a mile to go. Yee subsequently made a strong push and gained five more spots to finish 15th in 19:58. Sekhon made some moves herself and moved up to 18th place.
The fifth scorer was sophomore Cate McCormick in. atime of 20:47, landing in 23rd place. McCormick went out in a trio with junior Cameron Powell and senior Nina Gehrig. The three worked together through the first half of the course, at which point Powell and McCormick ran side by side until the last half mile. Powell finished in 26th place seven seconds behind McCormick. Gehrig finished in 28th in a timei of 21:24.
The team title marks the first for the team since the 2012 season. That season, the Dons also claimed the individual NCS championship through the efforts of senior Annie Marggraff.