The boys and girls cross country started their season at the Ed Sias invitational at Hidden Valley Park in Martinez, California. The meet served as a rustbuster to get back into racing shape and see the gains everyone has made through a summer of training.

The varsity girls squad got out to a fantastic start to the season finishing 5th in a competitive field that included teams from various divisions. The top 3 teams from last year’s NCS podium were in this race. This time the order was flipped, as the Lady Don’s improved to become the second best team in Division IV in NCS at the moment. The girls were led by Junior, Megan Yee with a time of 13:34, and finishing directly behind her was Freshman, Nev Murphy in 16:41. Another Freshman came in next for ACA, Cate McCormick in 14:28. The strong finish for the squad was rounded out by the last two scorers coming in close together – Junior, Nina Gehrig and Sophomore, Cameron Powell in 14:51 and 14:52. The top 5 were separated by just 78 seconds!

In the JV race, Freshman Maddie Bernstein stood out as the top ACA performer in a time of 16:05. The top Acalanes performance in the Frosh-Soph race was Sophomore, Sadie Poole in 17:16.

The ACA varsity boys squad was led by Junior, Logan Farzan, running 13th with a time of 10:52 on the two mile course. Sophomore TJ Cronin finished 50 seconds behind in 11:42 with senior Tyler Hunt 5 seconds behind him. The rest of the scoring 5 were closed out by Senior Zach Snyder and Junior Ben Brekke within 3 seconds of each other. ACA is looking to build on this result to get a squad back to the state meet for the first time since 2019. The fastest freshman of the day was Finlay Fisher with a time of 13:16, knocking on the door for a top 7 spot on the team. Meanwhile the fastest JV time came from Junior Ben Kokel in 13:26.

Acalanes competes again in one week’s time at the Farmer Invitational in Hayward to run on the NCS course for the first time this season!