California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championships on Nov. 29th. The boys team placed fifth while the girls placed seventh after placing third and fourth at the regional finals respectively.
Reflecting on the boys’ CIF finals, team captain Charles Abemayor ’26 said this CIF finish felt especially rewarding after narrowly qualifying in previous years.
“For the last two years, we have finished in seventh by a few points and barely made state,” Abemayor said. “I’m happy we confidently made it this year.”
Abemayor said he entered state finals with an aggressive race plan but felt that he lost momentum during the middle of the race.
“My plan was to stick with the leaders and go for the win,” Abemayor said. “I executed it poorly and lost the leaders during the second mile but made up some ground. If I didn’t fall asleep mentally, I would’ve been more in contention.”
Abemayor said the team responded well to being ranked lower than expected going into the meet.
“We were excited, yet nervous,” Abemayor said. “We came in with something to prove, and players stepped up, matching their times on a harder course on a harder course. Since they were scoring, that really helped us in the team battle.
Abemayor said the team’s extreme success was a meaningful ending to the story of their season.
“We ended up breaking the team record by over two minutes in the state meet,” Abemayor said. “It really meant a lot to us and perfectly capped off a very satisfactory season.”
Emma Lee ’27 said the girls team relied heavily on course preparation and guidance from the coaching staff.
“Our coach gave us a packet on how to run the course, so we used that to prepare,” Lee said. “We are strong at running hills, so we were glad we could use the state course to our advantage after the flat rain course at CIF.”
Lee said injuries changed much of the girls’ season, especially for her and teammate Mikaela Brabbee ’28.
“Mikaela and I were both coming back from injuries, so we focused on doing the best we could with our limited capability,” Lee said. “I’m grateful for her this season. We spent a lot of time cross-training together.”
Lee said the mental support she received helped her return to racing with more confidence.
“My coaches helped me a lot mentally because I was [feeling] discouraged due to my injury,” Calista said. “Coach Sharpe’s preparation talks before races helped my confidence.”
