53
GOING
HGH school
THE EXTRA MILE
By Serena Sung-Clark Grade 12 Student
The cross country runners were out there every day: on the track, on the road, and in parks; they showed up after school and, once a week, before the sun had even risen. This sport might not be for everyone, but nearly 50 high school students participated in the team this year. Though we have four teams (boys varsity, boys reserve, girls varsity, and girls reserve), cross country feels like one large team; we train together and run our races at Bedok Reservoir together. The reserve teams experienced a lot of success this year. Freddie Shanel and Ryu Morita won the Most Improved awards and Alana Grant and Fiel Dimayacyac won the Eagle Way awards, a new award given out to a member from each team that shows leadership and sportsmanship, on and off the race course. The girls’ varsity team, captained by Sophia Eristoff, Olivia Whittaker, and Serena Sung-Clarke, had many returning runners. On the other hand, most of last year’s boys’ varsity runners graduated, so this year was an important rebuilding year for them. As a result, the team, captained by Jack Devins and Justin Peterson, had many young runners; five out of 11 varsity boys were freshmen. This year’s IASAS tournament was in Manila. Both teams ran the 5km on Friday and the 3km time trial on Saturday.
In the 5km, the placings of the top five runners from each team are added up and the lowest score wins. The girls came first by a narrow margin with 41 points, beating Taipei American School by only two points. The boys also had a close race with 78 points, coming second only to International School Bangkok and just beating International School Manila by three points. In the 3km, the times from the top six runners from each team are added and the lowest time wins. The girls came second in the 3km with a time of 1:11:43, coming after Taipei American School by only one second. The boys came third in the 3km with a time of 1:02:37. Because the 5km takes precedence, the girls clinched gold and the boys came home with the silver. All tournament winners at IASAS are defined as the top seven runners in the 5km. SAS all tournament runners were Jack Devins, Sophia Eristoff, Vanessa Smiley, and Serena SungClarke. All around, it was another great season for the Eagles.