At the Mt. SAC Invitational (boys only) in Los Angeles on Friday October 21, the boy’s varsity cross country team placed second out of 22 teams. The invitational hosts schools from across the state of California, gathering them to see which school is the best among them. Tam senior Daniel Milechman and Sophomore James Macdonald were the first two runners to cross the finish line. “The team performed really well. All our runners stepped up,” said Milechman. “It was pretty cool for us to come in first and second of the 160 people that competed in the race.”
Both teams also competed in a tri match earlier in the week on October 19 against Novato and Justin Sienna at the Indian Valley Course in Novato. The boys defeated both of their opponents while the girl’s team defeated Justin Sienna, but lost to Novato. “We will pull it together for MCALS,” said Tam senior Nicole Woodworth. “We deserve to do well. We’ve had some injuries, but we will pull it together.” Milechman finished first in the boys race with Macdonald placing in a close second.
Freshman Ryan Boscoe said, “I really like the group of people and the coach. In other sports it’s really about themselves [the individual], but in cross country we run as a group and we really push one another.” Tam’s meet against Drake on Thursday October 28 in Fairfax was the last meet of the year before MCALS. The boy’s team lost by three points to Drake, falling one win short of an undefeated season. “The race was much faster this year than it was last year,” said senior David Fuchs. Tam’s boys lost by a three spread in a very close race (26-29) while the girl’s team lost (17-43). “We started out slowly, but then Drake’s Will Robinson started to break and broke up the Tam pack,” said sophomore James Macdonald.
Milechman placed first in the race, who set the course record last year. The next three finishers broke records from the year before, but no one broke Milechman’s previous course record set in his junior year. “A lot of people set personal records this year,” said Milechman. “It was their home course and they went in there and did what they had to do. They beat us.” Fuchs said, “We are two evenly matched teams, Drake just nudged us out at the end when Drake’s Carol Oliver passed Andrew Henn and me.” The boy’s varsity team finished the MCAL season with an 8-1 overall record while the girls finished at 5-4.
Woodworth added, “We all understand the pain and suffering were going through, but we all have the same mindset through the pain and suffering. We are always excited to come back because of our coaches despite the pain and suffering we go through.” Going into MCALS, the cross country team is optimistic of how they will perform. “I think we are going to do pretty well in MCALS. The big competition we have is going to be Drake and San Rafael, but I think we can handle them, then it’s on to the North Coast Sectionals and hopefully state.”
Written by Zach Wexman. This article originally appeared in the December 2010 issue.