The NCS Championships were a journey for the entire cross country team, especially senior Alex Castillo and junior Kayla Neumann.

Castillo and Neumann both placed in the top 10 at NCS on Nov. 19 at Hayward Hill to qualify for the CIF State Championships.

Neumann, who struggled through a tough, injury riddled season last year, had her best time of the year and placed second out of 44 runners with a time of 19:01.1.

Castillo didn’t shy away from performing well and was able to place eighth out of the 49 runners.

“Both Alex and Kayla proved to the rest of our team that making it to the next level isn’t impossible if you work hard and stay focused,” said coach Nick Shea.

The state championship meet took place at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 26. Castillo finished No. 133 in the Division I boys group, while Neumann was at No. 159 amongst the Division I girls.

“State was definitely a great experience,” said Castillo. “I was glad to be there and would have liked to perform better, but I underestimated the course and the pace the race would be at. Overall it was a great season.”

Although they weren’t able to perform their best, they were both more than happy to make it to the competition and show their team that they can also make it.

Overall, the entire cross country team was more than happy with their results at NCS. The girls team finished in fifth place out of six teams.

Neumann led the way with her second place finish, just 21 seconds behind the NCS champion.

Behind her in the women’s race were freshmen Mia Marsh in 26th place, Madison Wilson in 27th place, Olivia Ng in 33rd place, Justin Aynesworth in 34th place, and Miriam Gonzalez in 40th place.

In the men’s race, the team placed fifth out of seven teams. Castillo finished with a time of just over 16 minutes.

Junior Cameron Reyes ran his way to 16th place, while seniors Tristen Newton and Tyler Williams got 21st and 22nd, respectively.

Fellow seniors Parker Shields and Jordan Bandtell finished 25th and 34th place, respectively, while sophomore Siddish Sankar ended in 39th place.

Castillo has been running cross country for all four years of his high school career. He said he will really miss the friends and teammates he made through the sport.

“They are the greatest people I have ever met,” said Castillo. “I don’t know what I would do without them.”

Neumann said she’s going to miss Castillo and the other seniors as well.

“They have made such a positive impact on my experience running cross country and they mean the world to me,” she said.

Castillo and Neumann both enjoy the work they have to put in and the challenges they have to face, just as much as the end results.

“I love running because it’s not just about the finish line, but the trip along the way,” said Neumann. “It’s emotionally freeing, and it’s rewarding when you put in the effort and see the results.”

Shea, a standout runner during his time at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, was very pleased with the results of the cross country season this year.

Shea said he was pleased that he was able to push his team to break their personal records. He was also happy that he was able to get the new freshman and returning seniors to get out and perform their best.

Shea said he loved every day of the season, especially seeing his runners doing their best at meets. But he acknowledged that the toughest aspect of the season was working with the injured runners and telling them their season was over.

“I genuinely enjoy being out there on the runs, at the meets, coordinating workouts, as well as passing along any useful information I have acquired as an athlete and from my previous coaching experiences,” said Shea.