On Sept.22, a cloudy Monday afternoon, the St. George’s Cross Country Team had their first league meet at Jericho Beach Park. Both junior and senior runners were eager to kick off the season after training for a few weeks prior to the race with coaches Chris Winter and Stephen Ross.

The course for the juniors and seniors was the same: a 2 km loop that started at the field on West 4^th Avenue and continued alongside Jericho Beach and into the forest. The juniors and seniors were to complete 2 and 4 laps of the course, respectively. Once the team arrived at the park, the juniors assembled for a team warm-up as their race was coming up first. Before the race began, the boys formed a group huddle and shared words of encouragement. The seniors, coaches and parents were gathered on the sides of the path, ready to cheer on the Saints for the first time this season.

The Saints runners quickly made their way to the front of the pack, staying as a small group to help each other through the race. As they appeared from the forest after their first lap, they were still in the same position. In the end, Saints was able to clinch the Top 3 places with Roberto Pelayo Mazzone, Grade 10, winning the race by about ten seconds.

After an impressive showing by the juniors, the seniors were determined to achieve the same results. Following a thorough warm-up and the traditional huddle, the senior race began the same way as the junior race: a fast initial pace and the emergence of Saints at the front. Throughout the long race, the Saints pushed themselves to their limits and strived for personal bests.

Although Saints could not manage to take the gold, they still finished strong with two Grade 12s, Keith Chow and Colin Mitchell, coming in 2^nd and 3^rd place. Many other runners from the team finished in the top half of the race as well. After the race concluded, the team went on a cool down run together and with that, the first league meet of the season came to an end. Saints had put their best efforts into every stride and the results surely reflected this.

George Lin, Grade 11, offered his view on the season so far, “Right from the beginning of the season, our coaches had challenged us to build off of the momentum from last years performances and ultimately have even more success at provincials year. Although it was only our first meet of the season, every one raced hard nonetheless and achieved some great results”.