The BC cross country team made a valiant appearance at the WSC Preview Meet at Hart Park on Sept. 30. Overall, the men’s team finished 8th out of 12 teams and the women’s team finished 7th out of 11 teams. Of the men’s and women’s teams, Patrick Alvardo and Sydney Roman finished first for BC.

Alvardo finished 19th overall for the men’s race at 22:00.1. “I felt really good, I drank a lot of water, got plenty of sleep, I put tape over my shoelaces so they wouldn’t come untied” said Alvardo. “I was running with groups of guys, passing guys up on the last two miles, I PR’d. It was a pretty good race.”

Alvardo said he hoped to hit 22 minutes for his time and was very happy with his race. “Going into the last half of the race I questioned ‘why do I do this?’ and that was pretty much my thought for that whole third mile,” said Alvardo.

Roman finished 21st overall for the women’s race at 20:27.6. Roman ran this same course a week before, but struggled with asthma at the time. “I had my inhaler and took some vitamins this time and just pushed myself,” said Roman.

“I actually had someone to compete with this time and it was much better than last week. I couldn’t breathe!” she said after her race.

“I’m pretty competitive. I took off fast and then just hung back with the leading group and then finished.”

Coach Pam Kelly expressed pride and happiness with both her teams. “They were 19th at Southern Cal, so we need to be in top 18 at least so that’s real critical.”

The cross country team is more than halfway through their season and hopes to continue to improve.