On Wednesday afternoon, September 22, 2021, Whitney raced in the first league meet of the season. We were on our home course, so we knew our way around. The format for league meets includes only four races, not 6 to 8 like many invitationals. There is no JV race, just frosh soph boys and girls, and varsity boys and girls.
FROSH SOPH GIRLS
On the girls’ side of this league, one program reigns high, and that’s Oak Ridge. Their roster is loaded with many talented runners of all grades. But Whitney has a very solid frosh soph girls team. And like Oak Ridge, we have several of our freshman/sophomore girls running top 7 overall; these are girls who have demonstrated a high level of commitment and maturity, so they have been moved up to varsity. Even with several moved up, our frosh soph girls squad is competitive, and managed a close 2nd place finish to powerful Oak Ridge. Sophomores Katie Hart and Kaylee Holyoak led the way for us, finishing 5th and 6th respectively. Freshman Addie Keyes ran tough to finish as our 3rd runner, crossing the line in 12th place. Fellow freshmen Mandy Rao, Mallory Turner, Sophia Sauer, and Mykenzie Holyoak all finished near each other in the top 20. Sophomore Taylor Bettencourt and freshmen Tess Curtis and Brooklynn Casey also finished strong. Our frosh soph girls have a chance at a league championship if we can beat Oak Ridge and finish first at Finals at the end of October.
FROSH SOPH BOYS
Our frosh soph boys team has become very accustomed to winning, but with a couple runners moved up to varsity and a couple either out sick or still not 100% after being sick, we settled for 3rd place. David Hurren led Whitney with a 7th place finish, running much of the race with Cody Wagner, who finished right behind David, just two seconds back. Brendan Whitmore and Perry Hutchinson each placed in the top 15. Peyton Boyd and Landon Wibbeler worked together to finish about a half minute back. Also placing in the top 30 was Tyler Kubota with Victor Needham only a few seconds later. Our next grouping was Mikey Payan, Charlie Peek, Akanis Surapak, and Brady Quinn, all finishing within a minute of each other. Max Bowen, Aaron Humphries, Joey Gloria, Jack Regan, and Carter McBride added to Whitney’s depth.
VARSITY GIRLS
Katie Kopec continues to run at a very high level, and placed 4th in a field loaded with top runners. Katie ran the 2nd fastest 5K time in Whitney history; the only faster time was when Katie set the school record. Ava Kopec ran well too, placing 9th and hitting a substantial PR. Grace Scott, not at full strength, ran a very tough race to place 22nd. Competing in her first varsity race, freshman Izzy Soto was our 4th runner, followed closely by Sophie Bowen, both crossing in the top 30. Rachel Tajiri and Kylee Wibbeler paired up and ran a terrific race, capped off by both of them catching and beating a Del Oro runner in the final 400 meters. Tyler Williams, Ashlyn Fujioka, Mariana Blanding, Cailin Fitzgerald, Hailey Kelly, and Anna Giorgi all ran well to help Whitney place 3rd as a team.
VARSITY BOYS
The varsity boys team knew Folsom was fast and tough. Folsom beat Whitney by 29 points a couple weeks ago at the Oakmont Invitational. So the goal for this race was to get closer and ensure no worse than 2nd at SFL #1, which would set up a “winner take all” scenario at SFL Championships October 29. Whitney came within 5 points of beating Folsom, accomplishing the goal. Our scoring 5, which was Mateo DelGadillo, Nick Herrmann, Cole Jamieson, Callum Turner, and sophomore Joel Tajiri, all finished in the top 10, and had a time spread of a mere 19 seconds. This is very potent and a good sign for the second half of the season. Even our next three runners, sophomore Noah Lopez, Hunter Schwab, and Jaden Rapp, were across the line in only about a half minute more. Aidan Barkve, Connor Jacoby, Levi Chadwick, and Dario Ruscica (not at 100%) were next, and have been our top JV runners. Brandon Olah, Corbin Peek, Alex Wan, and Tyler Herceg helped show the incredible depth of the Whitney squad.
Although Whitney did not win any of the four team competitions at our first league meet of the season, Whitney had the best overall average team finish. Whitney is the only team in the SFL meet which had every team place no worse than 3rd place. The Whitney Distance Team continues to perform as one of the top programs in the region.