Running into Fall Sports

Expectations are high for the 2008 Cross Country season largely due to the 11-1 girls varsity and 9-2 boys varsity finishes last year.

After the loss of seniors like Jackie Quinn and Natalie Buck-Bauer, the success of the girls team will depend in part on incoming freshman. Top incoming freshmen for the girls include Marielle Pastor and Saskia Braucher. For the boys team, freshman Albert Buck-Bauer and Nolan Tonkyn have the potential to be strong varsity participants in the future.

The boys varsity team returns all-BSAL senior Keegan Richerson and potential all-league runners juniors Connor Haight and James Pickering. The team also includes senior captain Brian Shea and three newcomers to varsity: sophomore Aidan Juengling Bean and juniors Chris Gioia and James Lincoff.

In addition to the new freshmen, the lineup for the girls varsity team includes all-BSAL sophomore Jessica Quinn, seniors Abby Ridley-Kerr and Rachael Masterson, and sophomores Asia Kwan and Brisa Bodell. Masterson is coming off of injuries and has the potential for a great season.

According to Jessica Quinn, “hopefully, we are going to do well because the guys team is pretty strong, and even though our girls team is a little short on runners, I think if we keep doing hard work outs, we’ll do well.”

In their first competition, the invitational at Ed Sias on September 13th, the boys team placed 8th out of 32 teams.

Although the coaches believe it will be hard to displace St. Mary’s, which finished third in state last year, they have confidence that they can beat the other tough BSAL squads: Piedmont, St. Patricks/St. Vincents and Alameda.

Head coach Al Baker stated, “I would say we had a good season if we finished second in boys and girls behind St. Mary’s.”

One Response

1. 6:37 AM on September 18th, 2008XC Fan:

   Great article, how about more photos!

Leave a Comment

All comments are moderated. If your comment contains profanity or libelous content, please don't waste our time.