As the Whitney Distance Team moves through the second half of the 2021 Cross Country Season, the Wildfire Invitational was to serve as a bit of a tune-up for championship season. Our runners looked poised as they have continued on a progression of training cycles designed to prepare for the final push to the postseason.
VARSITY GIRLS
On a cool but calm morning–perfect for racing–our varsity girls took off on a 5K through the woods of Foresthill. It didn’t take long for standout Katie Kopec to take the lead and push her own pace, which ended up being a gap of nearly a minute to the 2nd place runner at the finish. Ava Kopec battled through some fatigue to place 4th. Grace Scott, running perhaps her best ever XC race, settled into the right pace early, then powered past a steady line of runners to climb up to 9th place and a huge, half-minute PR of 20:37. Tyler Williams also managed a 5K PR to place in the top 25, followed by hard working Kylee Wibbeler to round out the top 5 scoring. Whitney ended up 2nd in team scoring, missing the team win by just 8 points.
VARSITY BOYS
The plan was for our top guys to use this race to continue fine-tuning our pacing and packing as a team. Things looked pretty good from the start as our top 3 followed the script to work together on making a stronger push to the front. Cole Jamieson, Nick Herrmann, and Mateo DelGadillo have been our consistent front runners, and ran side by side as they worked their way into the top 10. Cole, Nick, and Mateo went 7-8-9 at the finish. Hunter Schwab ran really well to maintain as little gap as possible to the front three, eventually crossing the line 30 seconds later as our 4th man. James Bowen, Callum Turner, and Jaden Rapp ensured 7 Whitney runners in the top 30. The Wildcats ended up winning the team competition and taking home the trophy.
JV BOYS
Next up was the JV boys race. With a cap of 7 put on varsity registration, this meant that some really fast Whitney runners would be racing JV for this meet. Brandon Olah’s approach to this race was to settle back more conservatively in the beginning than he had been. His patience paid off as his move past the front runner ended up being permanent, and he never looked back. Pacesetter Aidan Barkve has been top 2 in several races this season, and this race was no exception, crossing the line just 12 seconds behind his teammate. Ten seconds after that, very-driven Connor Jacoby came in, making it 3 of the first 5 runners to finish were Wildcats. But it didn’t stop there as Dario Ruscica surged around the track, placing 8th. Then Levi Chadwick outkicked a runner in the final 100m to grab 9th, meaning five of the top 9 runners were the maroon and gold. Next up was Alex Wan… such a nice surprise to see how he has progressed. It’s not often when a senior comes out for cross country for the first time, but we’re glad he did. Corbin Peek and Tyler Herceg, who were packed up with Alex for much of the race, finished within a half minute of each other. Whitney’s JV won by more than 50 points.
JV GIRLS
Several of our girls were unavailable to race, so no team score for us in the JV girls race. That didn’t discourage Ashlyn Fujioka from having a terrific performance. Ashlyn gradually moved up to the top 3, and eventually led portions of the race to power her way into 2nd at the finish line, breaking her lifetime PR from earlier this season. Teammate Cailin Fitzgerald ran a steady race to cross in the top 20. We’re glad to have Ashanti Elie return to racing for the first time in a while, who also finished in the top 20. Anna Giorgi, showing her toughness having to deal with some back pain, pushed through steadily and unwavered to the finish of the 5K.
FROSH SOPH BOYS
As we have seen multiple times over the past two seasons, our frosh soph boys are fast and deep. Just a couple weeks ago, they earned a 50+ point win at the large and very competitive Tom Laythe Invitational. This week they did something that is rarely done at any level… they went 1-5 for a perfect team score of 15. This is extremely difficult to do at an invitational with over 40 schools like the Wildfire Invitational. Noah Lopez, who has become accustomed to winning, took the lead 4 minutes into the race, followed by a move by teammate and training partner Joel Tajiri. David Hurren led a good sized pack just a few seconds back, which included four Wildcats among several other runners. As the race developed, only the maroon was able to cling to the pace, with Noah winning comfortably. Joel came in 2nd (running a new PR), with David Hurren just a couple seconds behind, and then a couple seconds later came Brendan Whitmore and Noah Reed. Perry Hutchinson was just two seconds from catching a Bella Vista runner. And freshman Cody Wagner was 9th. Whitney ended up having 7 of the top 9 overall finishers. The freshman duo of Tyler Kubota and Victor Needham finished together with Mikey Payan just a little bit behind. Brady Quinn and Charlie Peek ended up finishing together. And then a quintet of Whitney runners… Max Bowen, Aaron Humphries (running healthy now after some hip pain), Jack Regan, Carter McBride, and Joey Gloria, all finished about a half minute apart. With the perfect score of 15, Whitney won the frosh soph boys team competition by a massive 60 points.
FROSH SOPH GIRLS
It was getting a bit warm by 1:00 when the final race of the day began. But our young ladies looked fresh and ready, as a trio of Wildcats settled in near the front. Sophie Bowen and Izzy Soto, who’ve both run at the varsity level, were joined by Alishia Elie in her first race. The three worked their way up to finish 3-4-5. Not far behind was Kaylee Holyoak in 7th place. Also scoring for Whitney as our 5th runner, Sophia Sauer crossed the line in 16th place, as Mykenzie Holyoak was just five places back. Brooklynn Casey held off two runners in the final stretch to finish in the top 40 and strengthen the team effort. Whitney came in first in team scoring, winning by 25 points.
Overall, Whitney had 5 full teams in the 6 races run. Of those 5 team results, Whitney earned 4 team wins and one 2nd place. The team is performing well and seems poised and ready for championships and postseason. Hard to believe there is less than a month left of the season.