As the boys cross country team’s first-place win in the CIF League Finals was announced, captain Adrian Welton (11) felt extremely proud.

This was the first time in eight years that the boys team placed first in the county, and as a result, qualified to advance to States.
The team competed in states at Woodward Park in Fresno, California and placed ninth overall, Nov. 26.

The team’s top runner, Welton, placed 24th out of 180 D1 runners with a time of 15:42.6 on the 3.1-mile course.

He was followed by Ryland Arciaga (12), who placed 51st with a time of 16:04.2, and then Kaeden Berner (11), who completed the race in 16:07.2, placing 56th overall.

“That was an incredible time for me,” Welton said. “I was not expecting to do that. I think I went out fast, kept going fast, and was able to have a really strong last mile.”

According to Welton, the team’s success in League Finals and States was unexpected due to the number of new athletes they have this year.

“Last year, we graduated almost our entire team, so this was kind of a fresh start,” Welton said. “So, the season started off really rough, and no one thought we were going to make it to States.”

Berner said that the team’s slow and steady improvement throughout the season was what he felt ultimately led to their success at CIFs.

“After our first cluster league for Palamor League, where we got 1st, we realized we might actually have a shot [at States] as we beat a lot of the other teams in divison one,” said Berner. “When we won CIFs, it confirmed what we thought because at the end of the season we realized that the other schools were improving at a slower pace than we were and we had sort of beated all the people that we needed to to get to States.”

According to Rowan Hannaman (10), who scored fifth out of Westview’s team and 130th in States, with a time of 16:58.4, the team was just ecstatic to have the opportunity to compete against athletes of such a high level of competition.

Hannaman said that the team made vast advancements not only in their times, but as a team as well.

“[Cross country] is an individual sport, but what you do greatly impacts the team,” Hannaman said. “There’s a lot of working together during practice to help build each other up their skill level. But even during the races, you want to work together by pushing each other through the hard parts of the race. It helps to have someone running with you to race better.”

All of the members credit their quick improvements and improved times during competitions largely to their team commitment and bonding.

“If I wasn’t friends with my teammates, I probably wouldn’t be running,” Berner said. “They definitely pushed [me] to be where I am right now.”

Welton attributes the team’s strong sense of connection to the leadership of their captains, Welton and Arciaga.

“Ryland and Adrian were definitely good motivators along the way,” Hannaman said. “Just having someone to look up to [was helpful] and they were good at just pushing everyone to be better.”

According to Welton, the team will have to adjust next year when they lose one of their captains.

“The good thing, though, is we don’t have very many upperclassmen,” Welton said. “We only have one senior, Ryland, in our top seven, which is great, as next year we’re going to be even stronger.”

However, the team has confidence in Welton as their top runner and to take over.

As the current captain, Berner said he commends Welton’s ability to always motivate the team to do even better.

“Adrian is definitely the most consistent,” Berner said. “He never got hurt or injured and throughout [the season], I think that Adrian will be able to step up and fill that role next year, although it is a big one to fill.”

Welton says he is ready to step up and take the role, knowing that there will be much more expectation on the team next year to make States again.

According to Welton, a main goal he has for next year is to lead the team to the States competition again and uphold Westview cross country’s legacy.

“There is a lot of pressure to perform well again,” Welton said. “A lot of the San Diego teams are going to look at us to do something big [at CIFs next year], and I definitely want to make sure we take summer practices more seriously. We are going to take things very seriously and then do whatever we can once the season begins again.”

Overall, Welton said he has a positive outlook for the next year and is excited to see the team’s development in the upcoming season.

“I think it’s only going up for all of our team members because we’re a young team,” Welton said. “We’ve had great improvement just from this season. I think that that curve is going to continue, and we’re going to be a really good team next year [with] high goals.”