For many years, the Oakmont Invitational was held at Maidu Park in Roseville, but this year the venue switched to our familiar trails at Spring View Park. Similar to last week’s Sierra Invitational, all runners raced the same distance. With 50 teams registered, several of the races featured over 200 runners. By the end of the day, Whitney squads managed a top 5 team finish in every one of the 7 races, including 4 team wins and two individual winners. That’s saying something about our runners, given the number of high caliber programs racing at this meet.
Varsity Girls
Our varsity girls team has been steadily rising over the past few seasons, with a big leap happening at Section Finals back in November; there, our girls shocked just about everybody with an upset victory as they seized the section crown by a convincing 40 points. What has happened since then? A brilliant, record-setting track season, and if current workout data and time trial results are any indication, this scary team is even faster this season. On Saturday, at 8am sharp, the first race of the day was underway with the varsity girls. The familiar sight of a maroon pack formed well off the lead pack, and as the race unfolded, the “maroon swarm” took effect; some of our girls would later say opponents were commenting on what it was like to have several maroon singlets overtake them. Sophomore Addi Ewers and senior Karissa Chamberlain led the Lady ‘Cats to the line with a side-by-side finish in 6th and 7th place. Just 3 seconds back was sophomore Sophie Hutchinson in 9th. And then came fellow sophomore Jane Landon and senior Ava Kopec in the top 15, making for a lethal team spread of just 22 seconds. Senior Grace Scott and junior Izzy Soto came in just a few seconds later, continuing to affect scoring by beating every other team’s 5th runner. In the end, Whitney scored just 51 points, while no other team managed under 100. Congratulations to our girls varsity for a very convincing win at a showcase invitational.
(NOTE: Our undefeated girls varsity will go head to head with St. Francis of Mountain View when we travel to Monterey in two weeks. SFM was a podium team at state in XC last year, as well as podium in the 4×800 at state in track, and they return most of their line-up for this XC season. They are rightfully favored to win the Jackie Henderson Memorial, but it will be exciting to see how our girls match up against this caliber of a team)
Varsity Boys
Last week at Sierra, our senior boys settled for 2nd to Oak Ridge by just a single point. And in the combined result of all prospective varsity runners, Whitney finished behind both Oak Ridge and Rocklin, two tough SFL opponents. At the Oakmont Invitational, all 6 SFL teams would toe the line, including once again facing Oak Ridge and Rocklin. Over 250 runners took off, and our Wildcats patiently settled in and stayed out of trouble through the cobble trail in the first 600 meters. Seniors David Hurren and Noah Lopez began to meticulously move up. After a gap, fellow seniors Joel Tajiri and Noah Reed, as well as junior Tyler Kubota went to work as well. Senior Perry Hutchinson was settled further back, but also was beginning to move up. Just past the 2K mark (midway), David and Noah had climbed to the back of the lead pack, while their teammates symmetrically improved their positions. In the final 200 meters, David and Noah found themselves in a pack of kickers and both placed in the top 10, all separated by a mere 7 seconds. Joel was just about 20 seconds back to give us a strong 3rd man in the top 20. Noah Reed followed, giving us a 4th scorer in the top 30, with Tyler two seconds behind. Perry finished well, just 10 seconds later. Our varsity boys team had an impressive 36-second team spread. More importantly, Whitney was the only team keeping the score under 100, beating Oak Ridge by 11 points, and Rocklin by 46 points. Beating these two teams at the league meets will be no easy task, as the SFL is very tough from top to bottom. But for this day, Whitney’s varsity boys claimed victory as the top team at the Oakmont Invitational, and once again in contention for league and section success.
Frosh Soph Girls
Once the varsity races were complete, it was time for the younger runners to be showcased. With three of our sophomores on the varsity squad, we still have a very solid group of frosh soph girls. Thirty-one programs did not have the minimum 5 runners to score, but Whitney had 11 toeing the line. One of the teams with plenty of runners was Granite Bay, which dominated with an unbelievable 9 in the top 18; no doubt their top runners from this squad will see some varsity action for SFL and postseason, as Granite Bay looks to once again be our toughest opponent on the girls’ side. But sophomore Ava Hurren managed to split them up, placing an impressive 13th to lead the Lady ‘Cats. Finishing in the top 50 out of nearly 200 runners was freshman Camryn Mougeotte, followed a few seconds later by sophomore Rae Britton. Coming in 53rd was freshman Abigail Speck. A minute later was a trio of Wildcats including fellow freshman Kylee Barrett and sophomores Addy Lee and Inessa Maldonado. Freshman Teaghanne Mahaffey wasn’t far behind, and a freshman trio including Zoey Rigdon, Lara de Valk, and Mikayla Yanni rounded out our team effort. With three sophomores moved up to varsity, and our top freshman Eva Soto not able to race, these girls still managed an eye-opening 4th place as a team, indicating a solid outlook for the future.
Sophomore Boys
This group of boys had good success as freshmen in 2022, and they are building on that success in 2023. Johann Gothold led the way last year, and was our top finisher this year, placing 12th. Charging hard in the final 200 was Tyler Crabtree to cross the line in 13th. Davis Little and Simon Aragoza finished in the top 30. In the next minute, three more maroon jerseys came in… Nathan Olah, Maximus Kotte, and James Totaro. And just a half minute after that was a very tough Connor Groff and Keaton McDermott. Keeping Whitney’s top 5 streak for the meet alive, our sophomore boys placed 4th in team scoring.
Freshman Boys
Ten Whitney boys took off at the gun of the freshman boys race. At both the time trial and the Sierra meet, top ‘Cats Luka Roganovich and Ethan Speck crossed the line together. But for this event, Ethan was unable to race, so Luka would go it alone and place a solid 22nd to lead Whitney. Filling in as 2nd man very capably, Zach Downing came across a half minute later. And in one of our more impressive individual efforts on the day, Evan Leman moved up to 3rd man. Samuel Dalmau and Matthew Byard were next to bolster Whitney’s scoring. Michael Matthews, Liam Powers, Cameron Holyoak, Irving Birmingham, and Maddock Su provided the depth for a 5th place team effort, and a good indication that Whitney looks to contend as a top team for the foreseeable future.
JV Girls
Last year in this race, Whitney had only 3 runners, so not able to score as a team. This year, we had a full squad of 7, with plenty of speed and depth. Junior Lexi Kool ran a very intelligent and patient race, settling back early before hunting down the lead runner for a strong individual win. Senior Sophie Bowen also overtook the early race leader to place 2nd. Next was junior Alishia Elie who finished 4th, holding off St. Francis’s #1 runner. That runner led 7 of her teammates to displace our remaining scorers, but senior Kaylee Holyoak and junior Manaswin Rao kept their drive alive behind the St. Francis pack, passing enough runners to make up for it. Senior Taylor Bettencourt and junior Mykenzie Holyoak helped secure the result, that ended up being a narrow 3-point edge on St. Francis. Congratulations to Lexi for the individual win, and to our JV girls for providing a 3rd Wildcat team win on the day.
JV Boys
Whitney boys have had speed and depth for many seasons, and this season appears to be no different. With the varsity squad managing a close victory in a tough field, how would the JV squad do? Well, to begin with, there were 16 Wildcats at the starting line. And similar to the girls JV race, a couple of leaders pushed to the front, presenting the challenge for our leaders to play catch. Senior Landon Wibbeler had a look in his eye as he began to close the gap on the frontrunner. Fast-improving junior Connor Rekers went with Landon, and the hunt was on. Meanwhile, a very impressive trio was working the next level; proven solid senior Peyton Boyd and fast-improving senior Joey Gloria, as well as rising junior Jack Regan provided a mini-maroon swarm, overtaking one runner after another in their trek forward. With less than 600 meters to go, Landon finally caught and passed the leader to go for the win. Connor was closing the gap as well, and our mini swarm of three was in the top 20; all of this gave the look of a pretty convincing team result. Landon closed hard and took 1st, Connor took 3rd, Peyton was 6th and Joey came in 8th, securing 4 runners in the top 10. All that was needed was a 5th man, and that was Jack just 6 seconds later in 15th. As if that wasn’t enough, a quartet of juniors–Maxwell Bowen, Aaron Humphries, Victor Needham, and Brady Quinn packed it up for a top 30 finish for all. Newcomer junior Tyler Nordquist was next for Whitney in an impressive cross country debut. Another fast-improving runner, senior Caden Martin led the final quintet of maroon… fellow seniors Akanis Surapak and Carter McBride, followed by juniors Daniel Cho (who just returned from Rubik’s Cube World Championships in South Korea) and Om Patel. And finally, displaying a vicious kick in the final 200 gauntlet was senior Danial Malji. Not only did our JV boys wrap up the day with yet another Whitney team win, but it was a convincing victory by more than 50 points. Congratulations to Landon for being the individual winner, and to the JV boys for the win as a team.
The Whitney Cross Country Team has a bye week for Labor Day weekend, then the annual overnight trip to Monterey for the Jackie Henderson Memorial Meet in a region far from home, meaning our runners will have the chance to race a much different crowd of runners.