Menlo News November 26, 2023

Boys’ cross country takes fourth at state

Will Hauser leads way, finishing 18th in a field

Menlo's Will Hauser paced the Knights to a fourth-place team finish at state.

Despite missing two of its top runners, the Menlo boys’ cross country took fourth at CIF state championships Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno. Menlo junior Will Hauser led the way for the Knights, covering the 3.1-mile course in 15:53.0 for 18th place among 202 runners in Div. V.

Several Knights were out due to injury or nursing injuries.

“I (and another teammate) have been injured for the past month or so, which changed our race strategy,” Will Hauser said. “We just went out there with the team in mind, and ran the best we could with our recent training.”

Next for Menlo was junior Jared Saal, who came in 30th in 16:22.0. Freshmen Henry Hauser (16:23.8) finished third and Jonah Block fourth (17:06.2) for the Knights.

Sophomore Amay Srinivasan crossed the finish line fifth for Menlo in 17:20.2, junior Joshua Benyo Baker clocked a time of 17:56.6 and sophomore Asher Lev finished in 18:50.9.

Will Hauser has run in the state meet every year since he was a freshman, and last season he was the Knights’ third finisher.

“Compared to last year, the race was much faster,” Will Hauser said. “The number of people running quick times was unusually high which made lots of competition.”

Eyan Turk of Woodcrest Christian won the boys’ race in 14:59.2 and Crystal won the team competition. Last year’s winner clocked in first in 15:13.6.