Boys' Cross Country Runner of the Year: Menlo’s Superman returns to phenom form in senior year

After being sidelined last season with a leg injury, Miranda hit the ground running in 2017, fearlessly attacking courses statewide while not missing a high school affiliated race. He claimed West Bay Athletic League and Central Coast Section Division IV titles in the process, and even recorded a new WBAL record at Crystal Springs Cross-Country Course at the Nov. 3 league finals with a time of 15 minutes, 1 second.

“It’s my last cross-country season and cross country is really why I started running,” Miranda said of returning from last year’s injury. “I was more about enjoying it, enjoying the team. So having fast times as well was just a big plus.”

While he succeeded at returning to full strength during the regular season, an unforeseen illness cut his season short. Miranda’s game plan heading into the year was to peak in the postseason, looking to make a run at a state championship and qualifying for the Footlocker West Regionals and even Nationals.

Contracting a stomach virus on Thanksgiving though, Miranda was a retching mess some 24 hours later. And the following day, Saturday, Nov. 25 at Fresno’s Woodward Park, he insisted on competing in the state finals. And while he didn’t come close to the personal record of 15:40.2 he set on the course as a sophomore — good for ninth place in the Division IV race and the top time of any underclassman — this year’s gritty high school swan song, at a time of 15:53.4, still earned him a Division IV bronze medal for his third-place finish.

“What makes him stand out is he really is an ambassador to the sport,” Menlo head coach Jorge Chen said. “He is literally a kid who gives it all. He left everything on that Woodward Park state course. He left everything there, literally. He actually threw up on the course.”

Miranda actually led for the first two miles of the three-mile race but faded at the end, citing uncharacteristic fatigue due to the illness. Where Chen recognized the extent of the illness was after his prize pupil crossed the finish line, though, during which Miranda was in a state of delirium. Chen said he could tell because Miranda didn’t engage in his usual post-race ritual, a courtesy he extended to his fellow competitors in every previous race this season.

“He doesn’t even cool down,” Chen said of Miranda’s post-race graciousness. “He turns around to shake all the other kids’ hands, kids he doesn’t even know. And that’s all him. I didn’t tell him to do that. There is not kid that loves the sport as much as he does … and that’s why he’s so successful.”

Miranda is one in a line of a great legacy of distance runners who have donned the Menlo blue-and-gold in recent years. In 2014, Elizabeth Lacy earned the CCS Division girls’ championship before moving on to Tufts University. Miranda is slated to run cross-country and track at Yale University next season. And this season, the future arrived early in the form of freshman Kamran Murray, who finished 17th overall at in the Division IV state championship race, including the best time among freshmen.

In addition to Miranda and Murray earning berths in the state championship, the Menlo girls’ team advanced to Woodward Park as well by virtue of its second-place finish at the CCS finals. What makes the accomplishment even more harrowing is the girls’ team of Kyra Pretre, Charlotte Tomkinson, Marisa Castagna, Gabby Kogler, Katie Aufricht, Amanda Foster and Cameron Boom are — like Murray — all underclassmen.

“I’ve got say, leaving Menlo and leaving eight returning runners that have been to the state meet, that’s a great accomplishment,” Miranda said. “And I’m really proud of that.”

Miranda and Murray’s relationship this season as senior and freshman marks a true passing of the baton. It was the same way for Miranda as a freshman in 2014, getting to run with the then-senior Lacy for one season.

“When I was a freshman she was a real inspiration for me to work out with her and be on the inside of her training,” Miranda said. “There were weeks when … she’d hit her time for every race for weeks on end. So that’s something that really inspired me. … Just to be able to keep that legacy going was a huge motivation to me.”

While Miranda’s cross-country career didn’t end the way he had hoped — he opted out of the West Regionals to take two weeks to recover from the state finals — he still cited the third-place finish at Woodward Park as the highlight of his season.

And why not? It still marked the best finish of any boys’ runner in Menlo history.

“If that’s my sick day, I can live with that,” Miranda said.