Cross country finishes strong at cif championships
The cross country season at Samo has now ended for most athletes, giving the majority a well deserved break. Following this two week break is the preparation, in which most cross country athletes participate, for the track and field season.
Matthew Flanders / Contributor
Selin Kocataskin (‘27) in first place, running to the finish line at the Mt. Sac Invitational.
24 athletes are on the post-season roster, which includes 12 boy runners as well as 12 girl runners, which hopefully move the team forward to CIF.
Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams have shown profound efforts closing the season and are now reflecting on their results. Both boys’ and girls’ are ready to head to CIF, projecting good results.
Samo consistently had strong results in many of their meets during the season. The varsity girls’ and boys’ teams displayed overwhelming effort across the board from their first meet, Mountie Xpress Invitational at San Antonio College, to the Warrior Mile at West Torrance High School.
The team’s early performances defined their season. With consistent effort and unwavering focus, they maintained that momentum throughout the year, ending the season with first in the Ocean League.
The cross-country teams have competed in a total of 11 meets. This doesn’t include Ocean League Finals, CIF Southern Section Cross Country Preliminaries and CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships.
To complete the season, the cross country team competed in the Ocean League Finals on Nov. 5 at Columbia Park, where the varsity teams dominated all other schools, displaying their true resilience throughout the race. Samo’s athletes filled all the top rankings within Ocean League. Varsity boys finished first with a perfect score, placing one through seven, where Kingsley Lin (’27) led the pack with a time of 15:24.16 From Phinneaus Pitts (’27) placing seventh, at a pace of 16:28.49. The same can be said for the girls’ varsity team as Crystal Gaitan (’26) at a 18:51.90 pace, placing first first for Samo, setting the tone for the rest of the team, which had an almost perfect score placing one through four and the rest of the team coming in at sixth, seventh and eighth place
Following the Ocean League Finals, the athletes then ran at the CIF Southern Section Cross Country Preliminaries on Nov. 15 at Mt. San Antonio College, where both boys and girls varsity’s top runners placed in the top five. During the Men's 3 Mile Division 1 Heat 3 race,
Lin ran a sub 15 at 14:50.90 placing fourth for Santa Monica. Selin Kocataskin (’27) ran at a 17:35.20 pace, placing third for Samo during the women's 3 Mile Division 1 Heat 3 race. These profound efforts have transferred onto the CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships where Samo’s girls’ varsity cross country team qualified as a team and Lin qualified as an individual. This means that Lin will be the only boy varsity runner, while the girls varsity team will be moving on as a whole. Assistant coach, Katherine Saunders, gave insights to individual qualifications.
“Going into a race by yourself instead of with your boys is a completely different vibe but he handled it with grace,” Saunders said.
From there, wrapping up the ’25 season, Lin and the girls varsity team gave it all they had on Nov. 22 at Mt. San Antonio College, during the CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships. At the CIF Championships, Samo recorded middleground results, leading both boys and girls to fall short of state qualifications. Saunders commented on Lin's individual performance.
“He didn’t have the race he wanted to have, but he’s still a junior. He has so much cross country ahead of him,” Saunders said. “I’m totally satisfied with their performance this season, and I think there was a lot of growth both athletically and in character.”