by Isaac Mays, Sports Editor

St. John Bosco High School’s Cross Country team just completed another successful season, placing fourth in the Division Four CIF State Finals on November 29th. 

Led by Head Coach and alumnus Tim McIntosh ‘79, the coaching staff is proud as the Braves ran their very hardest this year. Coach McIntosh proudly holds 17 consecutive Trinity League Championship titles. The Braves are already excited as they look ahead to next season, as many of the younger members of the varsity team performed exceptionally well during the back half of the season.

A lot of the credit for the great season can given to the coaching staff. The runners reported that not only would Coach McIntosh assist them in all typical duties associated with his position, but he also went above and beyond with time predictions for each individual runner. This process is called “doping-out.” The athletes even stated that his precision was uncannily accurate.

“[Coach McIntosh] is one of the few coaches that will dope-out races for us, and that really helped us,” said senior Harold Munoz. “He predicts this based off previous times and is always right on the dot.”

Assistant Coach Ruben Solorza, an alumnus of the Class of ’13, also dedicated his time by running alongside the boys throughout many of the harder team exercises, which the boys said had a major boost on team morale.

Bosco’s star runner this year was junior Aiden Aldana, as he played a pivotal role on the team throughout their season. Other notable runners on the squad were seniors Harold Munoz and Isaac Becerra. Through their seniority, they both respectably served as dependable runners and leaders for the team. All three of these runners saw improvement in their personal records and overall performance throughout the season. This only helped rack up more points for the cross country team by the end of the season.

“There has to be a lot of practice and a lot of time put into getting faster,” Isaac Becerra said.

The team persevered through many challenges as illness plagued them, particularly during their CIF State Championship. The team reported that they were feeling generally under the weather and that their performance could have surpassed their fourth place finish if the situation was different.

The Running Braves hope to use this motivation for their season next year. Junior Aiden Aladna will have had another year to grow and fully leave his mark on the team as senior next fall. Many of the Braves will continue running during the track and field season, and the team is currently valuing their offseason while making the necessary preparations to perform to the best of their abilities during the Spring season. 

“Next year I’m going to go for all the records here,” Aiden said.