Long Beach Poly, while better known for its football and basketball traditions, has quite a history with cross country, too—after all, at one point their boys’ program won five consecutive CIF titles.  But only three times in that storied history (2000 and 2002) have both their girls’ and boys’ teams been competing at Mt. SAC in the CIF Finals, as they will this morning, with the girls’ race kicking off at 9:45am and the boys’ at 10:45am.

In each race, 16 teams will compete, with the best being named CIF champion, and the top seven teams in each race advancing to compete in the state finals next week.  And while the boys’ team has plenty of hardware in the past, the girls’ program is more recently trying to establish itself as a powerhouse, and they’re on the brink of breaking a school record by finishing in the top ten for the first time.

“It should be a doozy of a race,” says Poly girls’ coach Nate Bershtel, who has all his runners back and healthy this week.  That newfound health, as well as sophomore Dynasty Gammage (quickly proving to be one of the best female runners in the history of the area), are what puts Poly’s girls’ team in the mix.  On the boys’ side, it’s an incredible depth of talent—that squad has a very small time spread between their first and fifth runner, so Bershtel says if they improve by twelve seconds as a unit, they’ll be in the hunt as well.

Come back Saturday afternoon for updates on how the Poly teams did!