30 Boys XC Teams to Watch this Fall: Bellarmine (CC)

It's time to get fired up for cross country! Our traditional XC countdown is back, although it may look a little different this time around - our longtime data analyst Jeff George has moved on, leaving this energizing project to the MileSplit team in CA. Our collective goal is to briefly highlight 30 boys and 30 girls teams that we think will have an impact this fall. We will spotlight one team per gender per day over a 30-day period. Similar to past countdowns, we will provide a cross-sampling of teams from all 10 sections without regard to statewide or even division ranking (those will come later, as will articles previewing each section, and returning athletes to watch). As always, if you catch an error or have updated information for us, email CA state editor Jeffrey Parenti (jeffrey.parenti@flosports.tv) and we'll make the corrections.

Bellarmine (CC/Division I)

The Bellarmine boys have dominated at the section level in cross country winning a section record 22 team titles. They won their first title in 1984 and their last title in 2019. In 2021, they were just edged out by Palo Alto on the 6th man tie-breaker. This season, they will be looking to add another championship plaque to their trophy case in a much different-looking Division I field.

Over the past few seasons, the Bells fielded some of their strongest runners in their school's history which really says something. This season, Bellarmine will be favored once again to win the Division I title as they will once again have the deepest team in their entire section. Typically, the toughest job for the coaches each season is to find enough uniforms for their near 200-member roster.

Senior Jack Frida should lead this year's squad as he was the lone non-senior on last year's varsity squad at the section meet. He recorded times of 4:31.00 and 10:06.40 during the spring track season to further bolster his role.

Scoring is against all CCS teams with returning boys.

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Albert Caruana is a Bay Area-based coach and a regular contributor to MileSplit.

Photo by CCS Staff