Blood, sweat, tears, and sore legs. Members of the Woodside Cross Country team felt all of this as they stumbled upon the finish line of their season, gasping for breath.

The boys and girls Cross Country teams have competed in seven races this year. Both teams have been extremely successful putting themselves in position for a perennial PAL championship. The team this year is extremely large and filled with talent and potential. This past weekend, the Championship meet took place at the Crystal Springs Cross Country course in Belmont. The girls varsity team did fantastic at the meet this past weekend, as they qualified to race in the CCS playoffs next weekend. Unfortunately, the boys team did not qualify, but freshman Nathan Bowman did qualify individually.

“After the impressive run we had at the championship meet, we have eight people going to CCS as a total,” Coach David Hartford said.

With the regular season in the rear view mirror, coach Hartford reflects on his team’s success during the 2016 campaign.

“We had the largest fall sports team at Woodside. We had a lot of new faces with a lot of new, really good freshman and a ton of veteran runners who made the team successful this year,” said Hartford.

The Wildcats have definitely improved since last year with runners on the team that are confident in their current and future success..

“I think we have definitely improved as we have become much more team oriented,” added junior runner Christian Canellos. “We now can work together really well and know each others pacing.”

Several runners from last year have improved their times, proving that the training being done in practice is worthwhile.

“Every day in practice we warm up with a mile then we go out for our 2 or 3 mile run, then we come back for a cool down,” senior runner, Juliana Silk said.

As they have bonded this year, the team has actually improved in front of their coaches eyes.

“It was really cool to see people improve their times every race. Last year I remember getting about 20 minutes, but this year I am getting around a 17:30, which really shows how far we have come since last year,” Silk added.

With so much success this year, and a potential for success in the future, the value of the Woodside cross country team will only go up from here.

“Next year you can expect us to be even better as our team will be at its peak,” Canellos concluded.