The Bright Future and Historical Past of SJND Cross Country
Written by Jonathan de Leon SJND ‘28
The Cross Country team at SJND should strike fear in other high schools and excite people in our community when they watch our young runners try and restore our past excellence in running. Saint Joseph Notre Dame when compared to other schools is mostly known for its prestigious academics and outstanding basketball history. People may not know that we have had a historical run in cross country where we nearly dominated our division for a little less than a decade and even produced an athlete who nearly made the 2024 Olympics. The history of SJND Cross Country is truly beautiful, but this year the future of our team is looking bright! The SJND team this year is in good hands and should be close to restoring our great running image of excellence.
The SJND Cross Country team started their success a little over a decade ago when they won back to back state championships for their division during the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The SJND squad was at its peak in 2013 when they were able to gain their long awaited attention and respect for their running. In 2013 they dominated the CIF-NCS Cross Country Championships in division 5 for the 3 mile with a score of 29, which was 51 more than the second place team, Marin Academy. The team was so good that 4 runners finished in the top 6! The team then was able to advance to the CIF state cross country championships where they were miraculously able to have the best score in their division with 64. This made them back to back champions for having the best overall team score in their divisions.
St. Joseph Notre Dame is known for producing incredible athlete Jason Kidd, who is arguably the best SJND athlete ever, but people may not know about our very own runner Cooper Teare who almost made the 2024 Olympics. In 2013, besides winning our team division for the 5000 meter in the state championships, the program struck gold when introduced to Cooper Teare who is without doubt the best runner in SJND history. Cooper started running for St. Josephs as a freshman in 2013 where he was able to show his remarkable talent early, placing 17th in the state championship for the 5000 meter, which was the highest placing for a freshman in that division. Cooper then jumped to 5th place in his sophomore year at the state championships behind 3 seniors and a junior. During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Cooper stuck out like a sore thumb as he became one of the best cross country runners in the state. In 2016, he actually broke the SJND record for the fastest 5000 meter with a time of 14:38.9 which was 1 minute less than the previous record holder and the 5th record he broke at Saint Joseph Notre Dame. Cooper went on to run for the University of Oregon where he became a 2 time NCAA champion, until he made it to the qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics, where he sadly lost.
SJND Cross Country has an amazing legacy that will try to be replicated this year by this young motivated team. This year’s team is coached by alumni Louis Rodrigues who graduated from the class of 2013, coming into his 1st year of cross country coaching. Louis started running in 2009 to try and follow in his brother Neil’s footsteps to be an exceptional runner. During high school he was inspired and driven to run by his brothers, friends, and coaches. During an interview Louis said, “It meant a lot to run for this school, I loved my coaches and running to represent my school. I ran to make my coaches and friends proud, and to drive people around me to be better.” At SJND, Louis was part of all-league honors in cross country twice before he formally broke the record for the 1600 meter run with an outstanding time of 4:16.4 in 2013. The record was later broken in 2017 by alumni Cooper Teare who almost made the 2024 Olympics for Team USA. Louis Rodrigues later attended Seattle University and became a bright spark for their cross country team during the next 4 years.
The St. Joseph’s team this year consists of around 20 runners, of which a large portion of them are freshman. Although the team is relatively young, they’re motivated and driven to break other people’s expectations and are beyond capable of anything they set their mind to. The young runners are motivated and beyond eager to run like lions hunting down their prey. Head coach Louis Rodrigues stated, “We have a really young team mixed with veteran leadership. Younger guys who are buying into their great leadership are going to give us a chance to be successful. The goal is to keep progressing.”
The top six runners to look out for on the team this year are Ty Chang ‘28, Jonathan de Leon ‘28, Izaac Brown ‘27, Maddie Olsen ‘25, and our team leaders Isabella Jauregui ‘25, and Finneas Jensen ‘25. The men’s team leader is Finneas Jensen who is as fast as a racing cheetah, with an ecstatic personal record time of 17:35.4 in the 3 mile run. Jensen is a returning team captain for the 2024–2025 season who has shown to be an awesome role model with an enthusiastic and positive attitude when it comes to interacting with peers. Finneas J. 25’ expresses his goals and ideal year for the season: “Making it to states is big, but a very attainable goal with the crew we have. With my last season, I hope I can really make this year special.” Finneas’s determination to be the best will help him guide others during meets, like a general during a gory battle.
The SJND Cross Country team is going to compete in the near future during the next upcoming months. The runners will be kicking off their season on September 14th in Hidden Valley Park. The team will then travel the long distance to Hayward for their next 2 meets on September 21st and October 19th. Our runners have been put through rigorous training to build up their strength and endurance to withstand long and difficult runs. We hope that fans and students can come and support the team to watch their fellow classmates’ hard work and dedication pay off, which will hopefully give them that extra motivation to keep running. The combination of the past and the future that makes the 2024–2025 team special should help them to restore Saint Joseph Notre Dame’s past excellence and dominance!
SJND Pilot Island Editorial Staff 2024–2025:
Editor-in-Chief: Anne Obuchi ‘25
News Editors: Jaslyn Ho ’26 and Jeanette McClure ‘27
Features Editors: Naomi Seche ’26 and Anabel Arista ‘27
Opinion Editors: Nicolaus Thyen ’27 and Victor Pham ‘27
Reviews Editor: Austin Ly ’27 and Sean Kimbrew ‘27
Sports Editors: Jayla Anderson ’27 and Jeremiah Myers ‘27
