PVIS CROSS COUNTRY 2026
Coach Scott Reid
FIRST PRACTICE: Wednesday, August 26 @ 12:30PM at the front field at PVIS
Cross Country Practices
Mondays 2:15PM
Wednesdays 3:15PM
Fridays* 3:15PM
*advanced runners will be invited to attend on Fridays
Students showing up late will be sent home that day
Some runners will be invited to a Friday practice @ 3:15 pm. Participation in Monday and/or Wednesday's practices is a requirement to take part in the Friday session.
Please have runners bring:
- Running Shoes (no vans, basketball, tennis shoes, hiking boots or indoor soccer shoes)
Racing Flats like these are also recommended: There's a men and women's model Men https://www.runningwarehouse.com/adidas_adizero_Boston_13/descpage-AAB13M7.html
Women https://www.runningwarehouse.com/adidas_adizero_Boston_13/descpage-ADB13WA.html
-Running shorts and t-shirt (no khakis or sweatpants, etc.)
-Water Bottle
-Inhaler (if needed)
-Sunscreen
Students hoping to compete in the Mt. SAC Meet on October 16th must consistently attend at least two practices each week. The early season practices will run about 75 minutes but will increase to 90 minutes as the season progresses.
WHAT WE NEED--Help! Lots of it. We need parents to keep an eye on backpacks after school. We need parents who are background checked to help by running with us or riding a bike with us. We need parents who can monitor kids who are not ready to run off campus while they run on the PVIS field. And we need a parent or parents to coordinate travel/rides from Mt. SAC. The bus will only be available on the way out. We also need a parent (s) to transport our tents to Mt. SAC.
In order to practice student must bring a printed out hard copy of the PVIS waiver. No student will be allowed to participate without presenting the hard copy of the form. No exceptions. SEE ATTACHMENT BELOW.
PVIS XC PARTICIPANT WAIVER
PVIS XC WAIVER 2026 (pdf)
DownloadCROSS COUNTRY MEET SCHEDULE
All cross country races are 2 miles in length except the 6th grade race at the PVIS Invite is 1.6 miles.
Wednesday, 9/2/26
Palos Verdes High School Mini-Meet
TBD
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
Wednesday, 9/2/26
Palos Verdes High School Mini-Meet
All runners
TBD
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
Friday, 10/2/26
Palos Verdes High School Invitational
4:30PM
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
Friday, 10/2/26
Palos Verdes High School Invitational
All runners. Students need to be at the PV High XC Course plaza between the two warm-up fields by 3:30PM.
4:30PM
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
Friday, 10/16/26
The 77th Annual Mt. SAC Invitational
Race Times TBA
Mount San Antonio College, Walnut
Friday, 10/16/26
The 77th Annual Mt. SAC Invitational
Select runners only
MT. SAC SELECTION-Our goal each year is to take as many students to Mt. SAC as we can fit on a bus. Priority will be gi...
Race Times TBA
Mount San Antonio College, Walnut
Wednesday, 10/28/26
Warrior Mile
5PM Tentative
West Torrance High School
Wednesday, 10/28/26
Warrior Mile
5PM Tentative
West Torrance High School
Monday, 11/3/26
PVIS Invitational
3:30PM
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
Monday, 11/3/26
PVIS Invitational
All Runners
The Miles Irish 7-8 Grade Boys Championship @ 3:30PM
The Martha Espinoza 7-8 Grade Girls Championship @ 4PM
6 Grade Boys and Girls ...
3:30PM
PV High XC Course - Lunada Bay
CROSS COUNTRY INFORMATION
THE PROGRAM
The program is in its 21st season. The program has won more than 30 titles, 25 in the last 10 seasons, at the Mt. SAC Invitational, the world's largest cross country meet. The Sea Kings have also won 12 State titles and have set the boys and girls team and individual course records at the Manhattan (NY) Invitational, the nation's second largest meet, and hold the overall boys and girls team, and the individual and team girls course records at Mt. SAC. More than 30 PVIS runners have gone on to compete at the college level, including on Top 25 teams at Washington, Stanford, and Gonzaga, as well as UCLA, Cal, MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgetown and Butler. Some have even represented the U.S. national team in international competition in track & field , cross country and triathlon.
PHILOSOPHY
Our goal is to instill in each student a life-long love of running and an interest in continuing to pursue the sport in high school. I view our primary function as being a place where students at an anxious time in many of their lives can feel a part of something that is inclusive and special.
SAFETY
Most of our runs will be away from campus. That means we will be crossing PV Drive several times a way as well as running in the streets around and near PV High and the Lunada Bay Plaza. That also means we will be encountering drivers who aren't always be paying attention. Some of these might be your older children or your parents, so you know what I'm talking about. So the students need to be aware at all times of where they're at and paying attention to the road. Students are to never cross a street without the approval of a coach. Likewise when a coach says cross they need to cross. When we come to cross walks or crossing places the kids need to stop talking an listen. We expect to have nearly 70 students. Only one or two talking and not paying attention when we're attempting to cross can put everybody in jeopardy. For these same reasons phone, head phone, ear buds are not allowed at anytime during practice. Water bottles are also not allowed on any run whether on campus or off. Students are welcome to grab a drink out of their bottles (or at the fountains) when we're on campus but we've had incidents both during work-outs at PVIS and on runs off-campus where some kid drops their water bottle and another kid steps on it and gets injured.
A student who walks on a run off-campus is also jeopardizing others. It's hard for three coaches to keep 70 kids safe when some are running 8 minute or sub 8 minute miles and others are refusing to run at all. It's not fair for the kids who are working hard to repeatedly stop and wait for kids who are won't trying and so out of safety and fairness habitual walkers will do their runs around the soccer field at PVIS until they demonstrate a willingness to consistently run.
WEATHER
We run rain or shine. I grew up in the Columbia River Gorge where an inch of rain is not considered a storm no matter what Dallas Raines says. One of my favorite quotes is from the legendary Oregon coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, who said "there is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." Think of that before you email or text me to ask if practice is cancelled. The same goes for the heat. Climate change is real and we have to adjust to it in a safe way. That means additional water breaks and reduced work-outs. But unless the temps get well into the 90s we're probably going to train responsibly. There are many years when we've competed at Mt. SAC when it's been in the 90s. Most of the other top programs in the State are based in the Temecula area, and in Riverside and San Bernadino counties. So they regularly train in the 90s or higher.
What we Expect
The program has provided hundreds of students an immediate inclusive, welcoming peer group to ease that hard transition from grade school to middle school and the opportunity to be part of a special program that has consistently represented PVIS, the school district and the community in the highest light. I've seen this time and time again where a student who would have otherwise been lost at PVIS settled right in because the team gave them an instant, no assembly required peer group of inclusive, high achieving kids. There isn't a month that goes by where some stranger stops Linda or myself in the grocery store, at LAX, at Mass, at Hayward Field in Eugene, or even an outlet mall in Palm Springs, and compliments the PVIS runners they've seen out running in the community or around the state. So we expect the students to maintain that reputation. Students will always encourage their teammates and their opponents, they will always thank meet officials and volunteers, they will stay at meets and races and cheer until their last teammate finishes, they will clean up after meets and practices. They will be polite and aware of others when out running away from campus. They will be respectful to their teachers and other employees at PVIS. We expect students to not only do their best in training and races but in the classroom as well. Students who aren't putting in the effort in the classroom will be left out of races.
We will not tolerate any kind of hate speech or language that is offensive regarding a person's sex, race, religion, sexual preference or identity, or intellectual limitations. Upon first offense a student will receive a warning and his or her parents will be informed. Second offense will result in the athlete being unable to compete in the next race. A third offense will result in removal from the team.
We also have one other basic rule: students are to NOT touch another student for any reason. First offense will result in a warning. Second offense will result in the student being removed from practice. A third violation will result in removal from the team.
We also expect students to do their best in training and the races. I understand that there is a wide gap in ability levels on this team. There have numerous cases where students among the slowest runners at six graders who went on to be one of the team's top runners as eight graders and have even gone on to be standouts on CIF or State championship teams at Palos Verdes High School.
We're not a baby-sitting service. If your student doesn't want to be here then they probably shouldn't be here. They're only going to be miserable and making everybody else around them miserable.
COACHES
KRISTEN GAGNON--Mrs. Gagnon has been involved with the program in several capacities for about five decades as a particpant, coach, mother of two children who signed with NCAA Division 1 programs and mentor to countless athletes from the grade school through college level. She held the PV High 100 meter record for more than 30 years. She teaches at Silver Spur.
KRISTY JIMENEZ--A former parent volunteer who has been with the program for more than a decade, coaching dozens of State and Mt. SAC champions. Ms. Jimenez teaches photography and animation and is the VAPA and PE department head at Palos Verdes High School.
LINDA REID--Mrs. Reid has been heavily involved with the program since 2009. She has also been involved with high level athletics since college. Both her sons ran for the PVIS and PV High programs and went on to compete in college.
SCOTT REID--Has been a coach with the program since 2009 and head coach since 2014. He lettered in cross country and track and field at the University of Washington. He works as an investigative reporter and Olympic/International sports reporter for the Orange County Register.
FORMER PVIS XC RUnners who have Competed in College:
Ian Anderson, Occidental, cross country and track and field
Emilie Barrett, Cal, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Lauren Bourgeois, Gonzaga, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Sarah Corsaro, Fordham, cross country, track and field
Matthew Espinoza, Azusa Pacific, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Brandon Farnsworth, Redlands, cross country, track and field; NCAA Regional participant
Matthew Farnsworth, Redlands, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Cole Foster, University of Chicago, cross country, track and field
Bennett Gagnon, Gonzaga, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Lauren Gagnon, Cal, cross country, track and field
Camille Hines, Butler, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant, All Big East
Will Kirk TCU, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Nick Holyfield, St. Mary's, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Hayden Hinch, El Camino, track and field
Ian Irish, Columbia, track and field, All Ivy League
Miles Irish, Dartmouth, cross country, track and field,
Morgan Irish, Georgetown, track and field
Owen Ladinig, Pacific Lutheran, cross country, track and field, Northwest Conference Champion, NCAA Regional participant
Ewan McFarlane, UCLA, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Rebecca Mehra, Stanford, cross country, track and field, All-American; NCAA Championships participant, Olympic Trials finalist, U.S. national team, Prefontaine Classic winner, Pac 12 Conference Academic Honor Roll, U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team.
Adrian Miller, College of Charleston, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Alex Naehu, MIT, cross country, track and field
Jessica Nye, Cal, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant, Pac 12 Conference Academic Honor Roll
Olivia Polischeck, Amherst, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Sierra Ponthier, Davidson, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant, All Atlantic 10 Conference Academic
Alex Regan, Northwestern, cross country, track and field
Duncan Reid, Oberlin, cross country, track and field; NCAA Regional participant, USA Triathlon national team, Project Podium, four-time U.S. Champion, World Championships participant
Frankie Reid, Lewis & Clark, cross country, track and field, Northwest Conference Champion, NCAA Championships participant, NCAA West Region Athlete of the Year.
Savannah Scriven, UCLA, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Kate Sherry, Pomona-Pitzer, cross country, track and field, NCAA Championships participant, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Women's Cross Country Newcomer of the Year.
Caitlin Stoner, San Diego, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant
Anna Terrell, Washington, track and field, NCAA Championships participant, All-American, Collegiate record-holder, Pac 12 Conference Academic Honor Roll, All Big Ten Conference Academic, U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team, Big Ten Conference Distinguished Scholar.
Natalie Wang, Cal, cross country, track and field, NCAA Regional participant, All-ACC Academic