Broncos reflect on successful cross country season in 2016

The Coast Union cross country team did things in 2016 that it had not been able to do in 2015. In fact, for the first time in several years, Coast fielded a full complement of girls and boys.

Both coaches, Jim Hurley and Ayen Johnson, praised the 2016 team for the quality of effort and the consistency of attending practices and meets, which enabled Coast to send full teams of both genders to competitive meets.

Coast’s top runner, junior Paul Butterfield, didn’t reach his goal of running a 5K in less than 17 minutes; he finished the final race, the All-County San Luis Obispo High School Championships on Oct. 27, in 17 minutes, 35 seconds.

Hurley said Butterfield “went out a little fast at the start of the (All-County) race,” which is “the way he likes to run.” Butterfield also missed his goal of finishing in the top seven in his grade (juniors in high school) and category in that meet, which would have given him an impressive award.

“He probably would have achieved his goal,” Hurley explained, “because he ran a great race. But the competition this year was pretty stiff.” Was it greater than last year? Yes, Hurley agreed, the juniors from Arroyo Grande and Paso Robles were tougher to run against this year than they were in 2015.

Johnson was disappointed that Butterfield didn’t qualify for the CIF postseason competition, “But he plans on making it next year.”

Johnson added that this team was “the most cohesive group of my coaching career. … They worked very hard.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Broncos reflect on successful cross country season in 2016."