Toro Park (Salinas, CA)
Whitney XC made the journey to the Central Coast Section for the second year in a row to compete with the best programs in a different region. Sadly, this was the final running of the Earlybird Invitational, as meet hosts have announced they will no longer hold the event. We will figure out another overnight trip to the Santa Cruz area for 2019.
We had a great time doing a shake out run in the redwoods at Henry Cowell Park, then a beautiful day at Capitola. A highlight of the trip was seeing our student athletes having an extended amount of time to relax and enjoy each other.
Saturday morning, the breakfast lobby at the hotel was already crowded and buzzing with Whitney runners as soon as the doors opened at 6am. Then off to Toro Park!
Freshman Girls
Grace Lathrop not only led our team to 1st place in team scoring, but led the whole field, outlasting some of the best young runners in the central state to win the 3 mile race in 19:18 (the overall 8th fastest time on the day for the whole meet). But an individual win wasn’t enough for our frosh girls. Natalie Eppler stormed over the trails to cross the line in 6th, and was our 2nd fastest girl on the day. And not far behind was Elena Collier, who was 11th. Hailey Kelly, Cailin Fitzgerald, Miranda Morrar, Ashlyn Fujioka, Skylar Jones, and Anna Giorgi all worked together to assure the team victory over Archbishop Mitty by a mere 6 points. Congratulations ladies!!!
Freshman Boys
Ryan Hart broke 18 minutes on the challenging 3 mile course to cross the line in 10th place. James Bowen was 59th, and Josh McMurdo came in 95th in a massive race of over 300 runners. Cooper Collier and Charlie Gioia rounded out the scoring 5, with Nick Pollizzi, Connor Jacoby, Levi Chadwick, and Parker Wickliff in support. This was Levi’s first race of the season, and he beat a hundred runners! Our freshman boys placed 12th as a team.
Sophomore Girls
It was a true team effort as our 10th grade ladies placed 2nd as a team. With none of our runners in the top 15, we couldn’t afford any gaps if we were going to score well. Kirsten Ransford and Grace Pierce crossed 18th and 20th to begin our scoring, then Jessica Becker, Haley Bedrin, and Emily Peterson all finished in the top 33. Isabella Nijmeh and Isabel Simmons rounded out the top 7, with Olivia Sauer, Bianca Gill, Cassidy Ransford, Alicia Chiang, and Zoe Cook all working together to bolster the runner-up team result.
Sophomore Boys
Jason Finta continues to excel at an astronomical rate, and took 9th in a very elite field of sophomores. He shaved nearly three and a half minutes off his time from last year! Jason’s time of 16:49 would have placed him in the top 20 in both the juniors’ race and the seniors’ race. But it was team effort that earned Whitney 4th place, with Byron Chadwick, Malachai Amore, Aidan Ransford, Tyler Hawkins, Max Sommerhauser, Riley Carroll, Chris Buck, Miles Miller, Luca Ruscica, Seth DeBoer, Hayden Erkenbrecher, Bryan Eickmann, Nathan Walsh, Dylan DeValk, Grant Whitney, and Oscar Drahos completing one of the deepest squads at the meet. Seth endured a pretty nasty slice of his big toe at the beach the day before, but toughed it out and ran through the pain. Kudos to him! Although Jason led the team, Max did him one better (literally!) … while Jason PR’d by 3:27, Max’s improvement was one second more, knocking 3:28 off his time from last year! We should also mention that Chris Buck was 3rd in line for biggest PR, going 3:19 faster than 2017. Byron and Hayden PR’d by over a minute, while Aidan, Tyler, Dylan, Malachai, and Bryan all PR’d by at least 30 seconds. Incredible improvement by all our sophomore guys.
Junior Girls
Speaking of improvement, Brooke Giorgi just keeps making strides toward the top. She bested her mark from 2017 by nearly a minute, on her way to an individual 5th place finish. Hannah Lee had a strong race, finishing 23rd, followed by teammates Katelynne Finta and Emily Britt in 33rd and 64th respectively.
Junior Boys
In the meet review, this race was described as the closest of the day. And it was, with the top 5 runners still in a tight pack with 400 meters to go. Austin Vasquez, one of our programs most improved runners over the past year, actually took the lead near the end, with training partner Ethan Dodge also in the pack of 5. Ethan and Austin went 2-3, impressively holding off the favored runners from state top-ranked St. Francis of Mountainview. Jacob Harbert and Brenden Jacoby used the buddy system to go 25th and 26th. Logun De La Mora, Connor Hedman, Sam Hernandez, Jared Regan, Robby Jones, Peter Casinias, and Paul Bar all hit fast times as well, most of them achieving not only a personal best on the Toro Park course, but lifetime PR’s for 3 miles. On this trip, Paul Bar, who is an exchange student from Germany, saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in his life. Welcome to California, Paul !!!
Senior Girls
Mikayla Barkve hit a massive PR in this race compared to her time last year, improving by two and a half minutes, and placing an impressive 22nd. Melanie Walsh, our only 4-year senior, also PR’d on the course, crossing the line in 66th place.
Senior Boys
Or should I say “Senior Boy”, as we had only one brave trooper in this race … Christian Cunningham, our final runner of the day. With only 3 seniors on our roster, and two of them not making the trip to Salinas, Christian still managed to hit a lifetime personal best in his race. Great toughness, Christian!