A top-10 state finish was just the capstone in an accomplished high school cross country career for Jack Arnold, who’s been a leader in the emergence of West Ranch High’s running program in the last few years.

The Wildcats garnered the school’s highest-ever finish at state this season, Arnold was named to the All Area Boys Cross Country First Team and he finished top 10 at the state at the 2016 CIF State Cross Country Championships — leaving the runner plenty to look back on for his time at West Ranch High School.

Arnold played a major role for West Ranch High School’s boys Cross Country team this past fall season racking in three personal records, and the biggest one being his performance at the 2016 CIF State Cross Country Championships. In that race he took 10th (15:32.2) for West Ranch, and that was a personal record for him.

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West Ranch got a total of 140 points in the championship race, putting them behind first place Claremont (97) and second place Loyola (107). That performance came after West Ranch finished sixth in the previous race, and Arnold finished in 70th (15:48.7) at that race. In the 2016 CIF State Cross Country Championships, Jack’s 10th place finish put him tied in the school’s record book with Tucker Walker as both men finished with a 15:32 time on that course.

During his career at West Ranch, Arnold has watched his talents grow as dramatically as he has. Jack started his freshman year standing in at 5’4, but throughout high school, he grew 10 inches, and is now 6’2. Arnold also learned how to overcome mistakes on the track and matured as a student-athlete, according to his coach Sara Soltani.

“The most unique thing is how he takes ownership and rises above his mistakes,” Soltani said.

In his four years of running cross country, Jack had a total of five different coaches, but it was Soltani who guided the boys’ team into the team’s best result. Arnold credited her with instilling the team attitude in the squad.

“Coach Sara was a tremendous help,” he said. “Coach Sara hit hard on the team aspects of cross country. You need to rely on 5-7 other guys, you have to put your trust in them.”

For Coach Sara Soltani, her first-year impact at West Ranch has proved to be the winning formula for her runners, coaching the Wildcat boys to their second straight Foothill League title. Soltani came to West Ranch from Golden Valley High last season, when Coach Steve Welker resigned to relocate to another state.

Some notable races for Jack Arnold include his 1st place finish (16.08) in the Foothill League Finals and a 2nd place finish (15:03) in his race at the Southern Section Preliminaries. Lastly, he set a new PR (15.28) at the Mt. Sac Invitational where he finished in 13th out of 128 runners. Arnold has received interest from UCLA, UCSB and UCR, although he has yet to commit to a school for next year.