By OLIVER CORPUS
Staff Writer
This year’s Cross Country team, most notably Boys Varsity, had an exceptional season compared to previous years.
Co-Captain Amir Guity (Sr.) and Captain Christian Go (Sr.) spearheaded the effort to constantly improve the team despite obstacles such as injuries.
Go and Guity both began their running careers at Rancho. “Back at Rancho, running the mile below seven minutes was pretty unprecedented, so I always tried as hard as I could to break it,” Guity said.
Both Guity and Go agreed that it was not only natural talent, but the hard work and consistent effort that enabled one of the most successful years that Cross Country has had in the past decade. “Seeing the work I put in, actually making a respectable difference in my time, and my expectations for myself was also eye opening and I hope that my teammates are able to see that the hard work does pay off,” Go said.
The captains’ efforts paid off at the race at Woodbridge Invitational, where Varsity Boys placed third in one of the largest high school meets in the country. Guity described the race as “near perfect, basically everything fell together, no cramps, nothing.”
Go attributed their success to the teamwork they built up in the past years. “We just have a really good team dynamic,” he said. “Amir is supposed to set the pace for the first mile and Ryan is the second mile guy,” Go said, when describing how they paced one another. Each runner would set a pace for each mile, so they could use their energy efficiently, while also instilling a sense of camaraderie in each other. As a result, the three ran some of their best times during that meet.
Guity and Go also felt that it was their duty to leave an impact on the next generation of runners.
Go gave a speech at the very first meet to the underclassmen. “We really wanted to prove something this year, in order to inspire the underclassmen, and we kinda did achieve that with Ryan Duffy breaking sixteen [minutes].”
Both Guity and Go felt that running changed them on a level that was more than physical. Guity said running was the factor that dramatically boosted his confidence, since he knew that “[he] had already been through so much pain during practice, so I could grind through anything like late night homework.”
Guity had a strong first half this season, however he was injured toward the end and was unable to run.
“My time here as a cross country runner has ended but I know the future holds a lot for our talented runners and the likes of Ceci, Collette and Ryan,” Guity said. “I wish them luck and hope that next year they can achieve more than we did this year.”