For the Los Gatos High cross country program, the future is now. In freshman sensation Shea Elmore, the Wildcats have an uber talented individual who won a key early season race on Sept. 11.
Elmore’s victory came in the Ed Sias Invitational, where she covered two miles in 12 minutes, 1 second. But Elmore wasn’t the only Los Gatos athlete who shined. The Wildcats had their top six runners all place in the top 25.
Junior Sophie Tau took second in 12:18, senior Fiona Herron placed eighth in 12:44.2, freshman Tatum Pyle finished ninth in 12:51.8, sophomore Kate Herron was 16th in 13:23.6, and sophomore Abigail Zolla took 25th in 13:38.7.
The squad followed that up with an impressive victory in the De La Salle Invite on Sept. 18, compiling a low score of 91 to outdistance second-place Campolindo by 26 spots. Even though the spotlight often goes to the fastest runners in a sport like cross country—and deservedly so—each of the five scoring runners in a race are vital to a team’s success.
Led by coach Paul Lawryk, Los Gatos stresses teamwork and cohesion. Yes, results matter, but in the end Lawryk wants everyone in the large program—the combined roster of the boys and girls frosh-soph, junior varsity and varsity teams go 85 deep—to leave having enjoyed their experience.
“My philosophy as a coach is to build a program that appeals to runners of all degrees of talents,” said Lawryk, a retired tech executive who formerly worked at Oracle, IBM and Adobe. “We try to take ones that are eager and build them up, and the ones that want to stay in shape and help them as well.”
Lawryk expects the girls team to compete for a top five finish in the Central Coast Section Championships in October. Freshman Sarina Salzer-Swartz is the third freshman in the Wildcats’ varsity lineup, which blends tremendous talent with experience.
At the Ed Sias Invite, Elmore and Tau were running with the lead pack before dropping them at the one-mile mark.
“Sophie and Shea, they’re both quiet assassins,” Lawryk said. “They don’t need to be inspired to run and compete.”
Lawryk said the boys team is a work in progress, but he’s been happy with their effort and can-do attitudes. Micah Hoang, Rahul Jones and Keaton Wong are usually running together and Noah Hale gives the team a solid fourth runner.
“We just need a No. 5 runner to be as consistent as our No. 4,” Lawryk said.
Conner Blum and Will Jenkins round out the top seven, with Jack Fan being the team’s wild card. Lawryk said Fan is the team’s best runner but is recovering from an injury.
“Our hope is by the time we get to the league championships he’ll be ready to run,” Lawryk said.
Whether it’s the girls team that is going to compete for league and section titles or the boys squad that is equally passionate about the sport, Lawryk said his runners have a similar mindset.
“You can’t be good at this if you’re not willing to endure some pain,” he said.
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