Hoover girls’ cross-country runner Emma Canal finished her sophomore season with another outstanding performance this weekend. Canal closed her cross country season on Saturday, racing at Mt. SAC in the CIF Southern Section Division III finals. 

Canal finished the race in 19 minutes and 3.40 seconds, a personal-best time at the course, taking 16th place. Senior Allura Markow of Dana Hills won the division race with a time 17:31.4.

Although she didn’t qualify for state, Canal was just one place away from earning a medal and 17 seconds away from making it to the next round of competition. 

With the season finally coming to an end, Canal was able to reflect on everything. When asked about her biggest motivator to perform her best during the races, Canal responded, “When you reach a personal record, it makes you want to try even harder. Also, the team environment and everyone’s support is amazing!” 

With only being a sophomore, Canal still has a lot of time to continue improving and running in even more races during her high school career. 

She talked about how she hopes to make it to state for cross country next year. She is the only Hoover cross country runner since Anita Siraki in 2000 to make it to CIF Finals.