On October 9, the NDB cross country team had their first race of the season. It was the Lowell Invitational which took place in Golden Gate Park and was the biggest meet the team will attend. There were over 40 high schools from the Bay Area and around California.
After having weekly practice every Saturday morning throughout the summer at Bayside Park and more than a month of training under their belts, the Tigers felt ready to compete.
The team of 14 girls broke up into two groups that competed at different times of the day. The first event was the Freshman and Sophomore race at 9:50 a.m. which began in Lindley Meadows. Varsity cheered on the group of eight girls as they began their race, which was a total of two miles. The course length was shorter in comparison to Varsity, making it a fun event to watch.
Sophomore Olivia McGlynn finished first out of the eight girls with a time of 15:58 which placed her in the upper half of the 200 runners. There were also three freshmen who had never run a cross country race before. One of these girls is Marta Luis, who was also named athlete of the meet for the Freshman and Sophomore race.
When the Catalyst asked Luis about her overall thoughts after finishing her first race she said, “I thought I did really well especially as it was my first race ever and I threw up three times. I was surprised at how supportive the NDB XC team was, even with new runners like me.”
A few hours later, at 1:00 p.m., the Varsity girls were off. This group consisted of three juniors and three seniors who ran amongst 150 other girls. Almost every Tiger had run this course before and therefore felt familiar with the route. It began in a speedy manner and the extra 0.8 miles that was part of the Varsity route went by quickly.
Junior Lauren Zerella was named athlete of the meet for the Varsity race due to her amazing performance and ability to race the race so well despite being alone for the majority of it. Senior Captain Megan Worry finished first of the Tigers with a time of 20:18.
“I love the Lowell invite!” said Senior Helena Morell. “It’s such a fun first race and a great way to introduce new cross country runners to the energy of the sport. It’s a fun course and I’m going to miss it!”
Overall, the Tigers had a great race and started off the season successfully.
