Story and Photo by Marcus Tolero
The City College of San Francisco women's cross country team heads to today's NorCal Championships as the No.10 Ranked NorCal team.
The Rams are coming fresh off last week's 2017 Coast Conference Championships, where the Women's team finished third behind Hartnell College and De Anza College. CCSF finished with a team time of 2:10:05 in the three-mile run.
CCSF's performance in the conference championships catapulted the Rams into the top 10 NorCal rankings.
"Our previous two meets were at Toro Park. With the NorCal Championships, that's three weeks in a row at the same place - the team knew the course well," Coach Nic Torres said.
"The conference championships was more about placing and positioning our numbers to make sure we got the points to get in (NorCal Championships). We were preparing to feel out the competition and really set us up for this week's NorCal Championships."
Torres said that the familiarity with the Toro Park course will be key to the women's team's performance.
"This will be our third time at this course. We weren't trying to peak during the previous two runs here. We'll let all the other schools peak early, and that's when we will come in and make our move. Our goal — is to jump some spots and get some good times and battle out there."
Leading the way for the Rams is sophomore Beverlee Wood. At the conference championships, she finished with a team-best time of 23:08.9 and finished 17th overall. Freshmen Alicia Gray and Fiona Keenan-Grice also pushed the Rams into the NorCal Championships by finishing with times of 25.28.2 and 25:34.3, respectively.
"Beverlee is our veteran and has kind taken the lead. She has helped push the other women. With Beverlee taking that leadership role, I think the women have exceeded their expectations,
"I want them to battle. We're kind of the underdog, but we're really familiar with this course and we know when to make our passes, when to hold back, when to kick — I just want to see them out their making smart decisions and jump as many spots as possible," Torres said.
The Women's NorCal Cross Country meet starts today, 2 p.m. at Toro park.