PV Cross Country Wins CIF Title
• The Palos Verdes High girls’ cross country team continues the school’s long tradition of excellence.
As fall sports seasons come to a close, the Palos Verdes girls’ cross country team has added another CIF Championship to its trophy case. Its second in a row. In addition, Savannah Scriven and Samantha Steman finished first and second individually in the race.
The team of Scriven, Steman, Claire Hardesty, Maya Whitcomb, Natalia Gagliano, Emma Nelson and Anna Terrell won the Division 3 CIF championship race on Nov. 23.
“Individually winning made me feel proud to be apart of this team. I feel like it also made us look more formidable because not only did we win the entire race as a team, we also swept the top spots,” Scriven said.
The team was ranked second going into the race behind Brea Olinda High School.
“Winning this year was different than last year because the race was much more competitive. CIF released and article predicting that the Division 3 girls race would be the closest race of the day,” Scriven said.
Palos Verdes finished the race with 70 points, beating Brea Olinda, which scored 84 points.
“When I found out we won again this year, I just felt a deep connection with my team, and it felt like all our efforts from the past months were finally paying off,” said senior Natalia Gagliano.
“At the end of that race we were all one strong family that did that race for each other,” Gagliano said.
The Sea Kings girls finished the season first in CIF and a fourth at the California state meet.
A hard fought battle this year ended with PV on top, and the girls even more hungry for another win next year at CIF and a higher finish at state.
