After three early season invitationals, the Whitney Cross Country Team got down to business, competing in the first league meet of the season. Performance and outcome mean a little more when it comes to league standings. The SFL is very tough, so for each of our four squads, there’s at least a couple of opposing teams in our league who will make it difficult to finish near the top after league competition ends. Focusing on these teams, as well as the goal to place no worse than 3rd in any of the team races, gave our runners a bit more of a specific target than just racing in an invitational.
Frosh Soph Girls
Oak Ridge and Granite Bay are two of the top girls teams, not just in the league, and not just in the section, but in the state. With their varsity squads competing at such a high level, it only makes sense their frosh soph would be tough. That was evident immediately, especially with Granite Bay, as the frosh soph girls race got things started. But Addi Ewers and Sophie Hutchinson would move up into the front pack and break up the Grizzlies. Addi and Sophie placed 3rd and 4th. Next for Whitney was a pack of five… Manaswin Kotte, Rae Britton, Eliana Nichols, Ava Hurren, and Kayla Mougeotte, all in the top 20 and all within 20 seconds of each other. Inessa Maldonado, Addy Lee, Natalie Holthe, and Joy McBride provided the depth to ensure that Whitney not only placed in the top 3 as a team, but finished 2nd.
Frosh Soph Boys
For the frosh soph boys in the SFL, Folsom is the team that is loaded with young talent. They would have swept the league in a perfect score of 15 (placing all 5 scorers in the top 5), but our own Tyler Kubota could be seen throughout the race grinding with that top group of Bulldogs, eventually finishing 3rd, breaking up Folsom’s pack. The good news is Davis Little and Johann Gothold placed 11th and 13th and were within 20 seconds of cracking into that lead pack–something to watch for when looking ahead to SFL Championships. Also factoring into the scoring was a 4-pack of Wildcats placing 19th-22nd… Maximus Kotte, Tyler Crabtree, Victor Needham, and Connor Rekers. Each of these runners is showing really good improvement and could affect the outcome at league finals as well. Simon Aragoza, Lucca Bianotti, Nathan Olah, and Keaton McDermott worked together to push into the top 30, with Brady Quinn, Max Bowen, and Jack Regan a half minute back. Christian Clark and James Totaro paired up to nearly break 16 minutes and achieve a sub-8-minute mile pace. Daniel Cho and Jack Sponder rounded out a strong team effort that was maybe not able to upset Folsom, but held off everybody else and finished 2nd as a team.
Varsity Girls
As we know, the SFL is loaded. But it is especially loaded on the girls’ side. Now might be a good time for a reminder that in track season the past couple of years, the SFL girls 1600m finals results are unmatched in the entire state except for a couple of powerful leagues down south. Translating that into cross country, Granite Bay girls are at the top of many rankings, including as high as 3rd in the state. Oak Ridge is just about the same, showing up 5th in that same ranking. Whitney girls don’t show up in state rankings, but are still pretty good. Seeing the progression of our top runners, it was evident our varsity girls could at least compete with these stellar teams. It helps when Katie Kopec is a Whitney runner. She is such a solid team athlete, but knows when it’s time to take care of business individually, and so she settled into her pace which happened to be well ahead of the other runners, eventually winning by over half a minute. Ava Kopec and Jane Landon as our 2nd and 3rd runners, came close to overtaking Granite Bay’s 3rd runner, and did finish ahead of Oak Ridge’s #2. Grace Scott, who finished 4th for Whitney, was just 12 seconds behind Granite Bay’s 4th, and beat out three Oak Ridge girls. And running in her first varsity race, Shay Waters finished in the top 20 to help ensure a very solid team score for Whitney. Izzy Soto, Sophie Bowen, and Alishia Elie (also running her first varsity race at league) all finished in the top 25, breaking up more Granite Bay runners. Kaylee Holyoak, Taylor Bettencourt, and Gillian Kingery gave Whitney a great show of depth, with Katrina Salgado and Annick Friedrich finishing not far behind. It was a surprising team result to many onlookers, as Whitney didn’t just compete near the top two teams, but actually beat Oak Ridge by 7 points, and came within 9 points of Granite Bay. Not long after this race, the Whitney varsity girls team showed up in the top 10 of a NorCal ranking.
Varsity Boys
Our varsity boys went into this league meet undefeated after 3 invitationals. But how would we do against just the SFL teams? A fast, honest pace definitely tested the top runners in the league, pushing the lead pack to some impressive times. Mateo DelGadillo finished in 3rd place, and broke the school record in the 3-mile at 15:21. Nick Herrmann and Noah Lopez were 5th and 6th, with David Hurren and Callum Turner finishing 8th and 9th. All five scorers broke 16 minutes and placed in the top 10. Jaden Rapp was next in 13th place, almost breaking 16, with three teammates all coming in the top 20… Noah Reed, Dario Ruscica, and Aidan Barkve. Joel Tajiri was 26th, clocking a 16:58, meaning not only did 5 Whitney runners break 16, but 5 more broke 17. Brandon Olah wasn’t far behind, a minute ahead of the familiar duo of Peyton Boyd and Landon Wibbeler. Speaking of duos, Joey Gloria and Brendan Whitmore did a great job of pacing and supporting each other, and finishing within a second of each other. Akanis Surapak, Tyler Herceg, Danial Malji, Owen Hinkelman, and Carter McBride completed the Wildcats attack. In this high-powered league, nothing is easy. But Whitney’s varsity boys team proved to be the best team on this day, winning the race by 26 points.
At the end of the four races, Whitney’s only victory was varsity boys. But Whitney placed 2nd in each of the other 3 races, proving to be the overall highest placing program at SFL #1. This meet gives a good picture of where each team is at, but league finals at the end of October is a winner-takes-all scenario for any squad that placed no worse than 3rd. So just as Whitney can rise up and improve on 2nd place, it is just as possible for an opposing team to rise up and bump us down. More work to do in the second half of the season!