For the first time in school history, the girls’ and boys’ cross country teams are headed to the state championships in the same season. On Saturday, the girls won back-to-back championships and the boys took third on day of remarkable races at Crystal Springs-Hallmark Park in Belmont.
Both teams will head to Woodward Park in Fresno for the CIF- State Championship meet on Nov. 30. The girls won the program’s first CCS title last season and followed up with another impressive finish.
“I couldn’t be more proud of both teams,” Menlo coach Jorge Chen said. “People had been asking me how the boys will do and I just told them, ‘I know that however the chips may fall, my boys will leave it all out there,” Coach Jorge Chen said.
The Knights girls dominated the top 10 led by junior Alexandra McCusker taking fourth in 19:00.05, and senior Kyra Pretre fifth in 19:01.25. The Knights created their own lead pack with senior Katie Aufricht sixth in 19:01.95, junior Marisa Castagna seventh in 19:04.51, senior Cameron Boom eighth in 19:06.38, senior Amanda Foster in 10th in 19:14.49 and sophomore Pia Gallo 18th in 20:34.14.
Menlo won handily in the girls race with 30 points, Sacred Heart Prep had 96 and Half Moon Bay in third with 97.

“Today was a really special day for both teams,” Kyra Pretre said. “For the girls, winning for the second year in a row and making such a strong statement really showed that all the hard work we’ve put in over the course of the season and especially over the past few weeks has really paid off. Because it was the last CCS for a lot of the girls, including me, winning today as a team was even more exciting because it’s such a great way to begin closing out our senior season. And we’re so excited to be going into state knowing the boys team will be racing with us there.”
The boys’ race was a thriller with junior Kamran Murray, the WEst Bay Athletic League champion finishing third in 15:48.44 and junior Calvin Katz in fourth in 15:50.26. Knights freshman Justin Pretre was 20th in 16:44.30 and senior Jackson Aldrich 28th in 17:09.03. Senior Luke Virsik came in 50th in 17:43.48 with sophomore Nishan Rajavasireddy (18:22.23) and freshman Aidan Deffner (18:32.91) taking 75th and 85th among the 120 runners.