By JEREMY KOO
Staff Writer 
Woodbridge High School hosted a cross country meet at Irvine Regional Park with Corona del Mar, Irvine, Northwood, and University High School in attendance on October 6. Coming back from the Stanford Invitational this past weekend, the top seven runners from both Boys and Girls Varsity came back ready to start the season.
Varsity Co-Captain Nathan Gali (Jr.), one of the Stanford runners, placed first out of the UHS team at the invitational with a new personal record of 16:31. He ran 16th overall.
“The other schools like Woodbridge are always really fast and it can get discouraging at times,” Gali said, “But I think it motivates me to push myself to my limits so I can achieve a PR like I did today.”
Varsity runners Christian Go (Jr.) and Ryan Liang (Jr.) also ran second and third among the University runners, securing twenty-fourth and thirty-first at the invitational. Both runner came back with times of 16:48 and 17:13 respectively.
Ceci Langlois (So.) lead Girls Varsity, achieving fourth overall with a time of 18:13, just behind three seniors from the other schools. She is currently ranked as the seventeenth all-time fastest runner for girls cross country in UHS history.
“Always do the best you can and never give up,” Langlois said when asked about her motivation to get through the long practices and races.
With young runners like Gali and Langlois leading the team, both Boys and Girls Varsity are looking to go to CIF for the first time in five years. Although UHS is currently not listed among the top ten teams in Orange County for either gender, the cross country runners are working hard to prepare for the rest of the season.
Their league final is to take place at Mason Park on November 3.