Our final meet in this season’s dual series was run on the familiar trails of Spring View Park. Wet weather forecast for the morning of the race ended up blowing through overnight, leaving a few puddles, but otherwise perfect running conditions once again. Both frosh soph squads defeated Del Oro. Our varsity squads had split results, as a short-handed girls team lost, and our guys managed to remain undefeated.
The regular season is officially over as each SFL team has opposed each other team once. The season wraps up this Friday where Jessup hosts the SFL Championships.
Standings after 5 weeks
- Frosh soph girls are 4-1 and in 1st place;
Granite Bay beat our girls head to head, and if that happens at SFL Finals, Granite Bay wins the title, and Whitney would be 2nd - Frosh soph boys are 5-0 and in 1st place;
Granite Bay is only one loss behind and so Whitney would need to defeat Granite Bay at Finals to win the league title - Varsity girls are 2-3 and tied for 3rd;
with 3 SFL teams being top 5 section teams, placing higher than 4th at SFL Finals will be difficult - Varsity boys are 5-0 and in 1st place;
both Folsom and Rocklin are close, and if either of them beats Whitney at SFL Finals, Whitney would settle for a share of the title, or a share of 2nd if both defeat Whitney at Finals
Being that our meet on Saturday was at Spring View, we were finally able to do some comparative data. Cross country is hard to gauge improvement as each course is different. It may very well be that a runner runs a slower time but performs better due to course difficulty. This is why it is almost pointless to get hung up on PR’s in cross country. But last fall, the runners who participated in “extended summer conditioning” ran a 3K and a 5K on the Spring View trails. In each case, the route was different than Saturday’s race. Also in each case, Saturday’s actual distance was slightly further, so improvement is more profound than this table below indicates. The table shows 38 of our 42 runners who raced last fall and who realized a faster time in the race on Saturday, even if only by a few seconds.
For our final dual meet, it was the boys frosh soph who started things off. And as we’ve seen each Saturday this cross country season, our frosh soph boys compete with much more team emphasis and maturity than many varsity squads, as they grabbed yet another perfect score of 15. Saturday was a chance to open up and fly a bit as the course at Spring View has good footing and is fairly level. David Hurren led the way with a blazing 10:39 over the 3K course, followed by Noah Lopez, Anthony Berg, Perry Hutchinson, and Joel Tajiri to sweep the top 5, all under 11 minutes. Sophomore Aidan Barkve ran really well, closing the gap to the top 5 to less than half a minute and finishing 6th. Freshmen Brendan Whitmore and Noah Reed were not far behind and got in before the first Del Oro runner. Sophomore Nick Nottoli broke 12 with freshman Landon Wibbeler just a couple seconds back, running one of his best races of the season. Fellow freshmen Peyton Boyd, Mikey Payan, Charlie Peek and Akanis Surapak (incredible improvement over his fall time), as well as sophomores Corbin Peek and Tyler Herceg all hit significant PR’s over the 3K distance as compared to the virtual 3K race at Spring View last fall.
Our frosh soph ladies had equal success. Freshman Sophie Bowen capped the regular season as the most consistent front runner of any of our squads. Sophie won with more than half a minute improvement over last fall. Sophomore Ashanti Elie was 2nd, beating her fall time by over a minute. Sophomore Tyler Williams was 3rd, regaining her form nicely after not being able to train with the team for nearly a full month. Freshmen Katie Hart, Mikaela Pock, Taylor Bettencourt, and Zoe Cloud, and sophomore Emma Carlson all showed tremendous improvement over their fall times, and ensured a team sweep on points in the race with Del Oro.
Varsity guys were next, with our 3 front runners taking the lead right away. Senior Byron Chadwick won by quite a distance in a good time of 16:30, which was 4th best on the day. After Del Oro’s top runner got in, Whitney took the next 3 spots with junior Ryan Hart, sophomore Teo Delgadillo, and senior Jason Finta. Senior Aidan Ransford was 7th to complete the scoring and defeat Del Oro. Sophomore Cole Jamieson ran his first 5K of the season, still patiently coming back after his bike accident, finishing just 14 seconds behind Aidan to strengthen Whitney’s already powerful depth. Sophomore Nick Herrmann also placed in the top 10, not far from Cole, with an excellent time of 17:35, nearly a minute and a half better than his time last fall. Sophomore Callum Turner broke 18, which is a big milestone, and sophomore Brandon Olah and junior Hunter Schwab were just a few seconds back. Juniors James Bowen, Charlie Gioia, Connor Jacoby, and Levi Chadwick, and seniors Luca Ruscica, Max Sommerhauser, and Dylan DeValk once again provided good depth.
The varsity girls team was running short-handed as senior Jessica Becker was involved in a scary accident where her car was rear-ended in a 4 car pile-up Friday after practice. We are so fortunate to know that Jessica was unharmed, but is sore from the impact and understandably no doubt shaken up. It was great seeing her at the course Saturday supporting her teammates. Sophomore Katie Kopec led Whitney as usual, finishing 3rd overall. Freshman Ava Kopec was 5th, and Senior Haley Bedrin really rose up to fill that #3 spot where Jessica usually finishes, hitting a near lifetime PR at 21-flat, placing 7th. Freshman Grace Scott was next in 8th; both Grace and Haley bettered their fall SV 5K’s by about a minute and a half. Although Del Oro’s top runners were faster than Whitney’s, there were 11 Wildcats across the line before the 6th Eagle, once again demonstrating strong depth. Seniors Kirsten Ransford, Grace Pierce, and Olivia Sauer all achieved noticeably faster marks compared to the 5K last fall, as did junior Ashlyn Fujioka (by more than a minute) and sophomore Mariana Blanding. But nobody showed as massive improvement as juniors Anna Giorgi and Kylee Wibbeler, who each posted marks more than 3 full minutes faster on Saturday than last fall. And great job by juniors Natalie Eppler, Rachel Tajiri, Hailey Kelly, and Cailin Fitzgerald, as well as seniors Cassidy Ransford and Alicia Chiang.
Next up is the final cross country meet of the 2020 season (yes, “2020 season”, even though it’s 2021). The Sierra Foothill League Championships will be Friday, March 12, at Wm Jessup University.