On Oct. 7, Riordan’s Cross Country Team competed at the Serra Crystal Springs Invitational. The team came in seventh place out of 20 teams, earning this place by their continuous efforts and training over the summer.
The team’s practices and meets have been recorded and uploaded by Coach Benny Willers ’08 onto Instagram under the title “Fast Times at Riordan High.” These videos depict the team as they grow and work together. Colton Wang ’25 explained that these videos show how the team really works and they tell the truth in their narrations.
“The hardest thing about running is when I wake up and I’m like, ‘Why do I even run?’” Wang said in the first episode. “It’s been my single minded passion for a few years.”
The team is known around campus for being one of the hardest-working groups in the school. They were introduced as such at the Homecoming Rally in August, in which they won a game of tug-of-war against players on the football team.
The team continued their practice over the summer, working most days of the week. Varsity runner William Parker ’24 said, “Over the summer we had practice six days a week and even a four-day mountain retreat in August.”
“Our team put in tremendous effort, with some of us totaling well over 500 cumulative miles, even near 800 for our varsity team.”
Some players have other roadblocks that they have to navigate through, like Dominic Thompson ’26 who is currently recovering from an injury.
“My goal for the season is to compete and do well, which at the moment is hard because I’m recovering from injury.”
Coach Brian Kosewic ’16 has high hopes for this year’s season.
“What I’m really excited about this year is that I think that all of the athletes that we have on our Varsity team are really thinking about competing and succeeding together as a team,” he explained.
He hopes for the team of seven to move up from the West Catholic Athletic League, which is an organization of nine Catholic schools in the Bay Area, and win the Central Coast Section, which includes “most of the public and private schools from San Francisco down to San José,” as Kosewic explained.
The team is going to aim for the top and qualify for the state meet, which they’ve done for many years.
