Maidu Regional Park (Roseville)
Great meet Saturday. It looked like our athletes (and parents) were caught up in the positive vibe that is so unique to cross country. A big thank you to all in our XC community for spreading the support to not just our own runners, but to all who participated in what I thought was an incredible meet experience.
On the numbers side, we had many PR’s (personal records) and top 10 finishes. Each of our 7 squads performed amazingly, a first pay-off to the high level of commitment our athletes put in to the summer phase of preparation.
Team results …
Both varsity teams were short-handed (“short-footed”?) but still ran tough for a good team finish. Our boys and girls varsity teams were 11th and 13th overall out of 34 schools. JV boys placed 9th.
We have much bigger numbers in the younger classes, so our depth for frosh-soph is more of a factor. Freshman boys finished 4th, sophomore boys were 2nd, and frosh-soph girls were 2nd as well, only 12 points behind powerhouse St. Francis.
In most cross country meets, runners from any grade can be entered into a JV race. Being that we have a large number of freshman and sophomore girls, we split the frosh-soph squad into frosh-soph and JV. Our JV girls squad (composed entirely of frosh-soph) finished 2nd as a team, again behind only St. Francis. Outstanding talent, effort and depth with our young ladies.
Whitney had quite a few top individual performances to bolster those team results …
Ethan Dodge and Austin Vasquez battled some of the other top runners in the section to go 3rd and 5th respectively. Ethan set a new school record as he eclipsed the all-time Whitney 4000m record by 2 seconds, clocking 12:22. Austin was only 5 seconds behind.
Our 2nd place JV girls scored on the strength of a tight pack, Olivia Sauer, Isabel Simmons, Cailin Fitzgerald, Cassidy Ransford, and Bella Nijmeh all scored points, crossing the line from 20th to 27th place to secure the 2nd place team result. Great team work, ladies!!!
Ryan Hart finished in 6th place to lead the freshman boys team. His time also moves him into 4th all-time on Whitney’s 4K list for freshman boys.
In one of the most impressive individual races of the day, Jason Finta finished in 5th place to lead the sophomore boys.
Equally as impressive, in the frosh-soph girls race, Grace Lathrop, worked into the lead to run stride for stride with sophomore Abby Fletcher from Oak Ridge, who is one of the top runners in the area. Grace finished just a few seconds behind her to take 2nd place individually. Kirsten Ransford and Natalie Eppler placed 10th and 12th respectively for a very strong showing. Grace and Natalie are now 1-2 on the all-time Whitney freshman 4K list. Elena Collier ran the 6th fastest time ever for a Whitney freshman girl in the 4K.
Grace, Kirsten, Natalie, and junior Brooke Giorgi all hit 4000m marks that place them each in the top 10 on the Whitney all-time list. Ethan, Austin, and junior Jacob Harbert each made the top 10 all-time list as well.
Our five fastest guys on the day … Ethan, Austin, Jacob, Jason, and Tyler Hawkins established a 5-man team time that is an all-time best for Whitney cross country. No team at Whitney has ever been faster in a 4K race than the combined times of these five at Maidu Park on Saturday. This indicates a very promising season, especially considering 4 of our top runners did not race Saturday.
All of our runners showed impressive improvement in our first race. Sixty-two Whitney runners competed, and 58 of our runners ran the fastest 4K of their life Saturday! Thirty of 34 returning athletes improved on their lifetime 4000m PR. Below is a table that shows each runner’s time from 2017 compared to yesterday’s time. The “Improvement” column is the number of seconds faster, so 14 runners improved by more than a minute, and 5 improved by over 2 minutes. Sophomore Chris Buck led all “improvers” by hitting a PR that is over 3 minutes!
Winning is what we want to do. But beyond that, seeing this many runners work as hard as they do is incredible, and very moving. All our runners should be celebrated. We as coaches are very grateful to be working with such a high class group of teenagers and families. Thanks to all for a terrific start to our competition season.