The Menlo cross country teams opened the season at the Lowell Invitational in San Francisco on Saturday.

The Menlo boys’ cross country took ninth overall among 30 teams. Returning from last season’s Nike Cross National and state champion team: Junior Henry Hauser led the way, taking seventh on the 2.78-mile course in 14:01.6. Sophomore Oliver Olbekson was 25th in 14:36.8, senior Amay Srinivasan finished in 15:03.4 and junior Jonah Block was Menlo’s fourth finisher in 15:38.8 in the field of 201 runners. Junior Ethan Shapero and seniors Raj Kaushek and James Yue rounded out the Menlo varsity.

In the Varsity Girls race, senior Ariya Kaushek was Menlo’s top finisher in 29th with a time of 17:50.9, followed by senior Halle Blanchard and junior Bella Ewers.

The freshman boys’ team came out in full force. Lete Shen placed fifth in 12:00.9 across 2.03 miles to pace the Menlo freshman boys, who took first in the Frosh Boys 2 team competition. Christopher Dodd was ninth and Gabe Parish in 17th. David Gatica in 18th and Rio Yamada in 20th. Zander Cosgrove took 22nd and Connor Yonkers 32nd, followed by Kenzo Kushida, Marco Godino-Lin, Alexander Hasenstab, Tobey Mulloy, Nakul Patnam, Henry Pirovich, Nate Sittler, Dylan Ladhabhoy and Arnav Darshan.

In the sophomore race, Jack Harman placed seventh in 11:34.3, followed by Kaito Smith, Julian Lemay and Asher Beck. 

In the Freshman Girls race, Madeline Lee was Menlo’s top finisher. Annika Lecybil, Grace Knowles, Lila Ozdemir, Ella Trunnel, Maria Camila Rodriguez and Eva Mathur rounded out the Knights crew.