Being that our campus is only a mile from Jessup University, it only makes sense that Whitney is the host school for the Jessup Invitational, especially since the Jessup XC Course is the home of our SFL Championships. There is a college component to this meet, with a Men’s 8K and a Women’s 5K scheduled in the middle of the meet, between the 2 mile frosh soph races and the 3 mile varsity and JV races.
Frosh Soph Girls
We have a very strong group of young girls making up our frosh soph squad. Three of our sophomores have been running varsity since the postseason of 2022 and through track season. But even with those 3 runners not available for frosh soph duty, Whitney still races well. The duo of freshman Eva Soto and sophomore Ava Hurren has been effective to start our scoring in recent races, placing 5th and 7th respectively in the Jessup meet. Another duo, freshman Camryn Mougeotte and sophomore Rae Britton have ensured there’s not much of a gap, both pushing into the top 20 in the Jessup race. Freshman Kylie Barrett, who ran with such heart at the recent league meet, followed with a strong effort placing 35th. Sophomores Addy Lee and Inessa Maldonado were both in the top 50, displacing the scorers of most of the other teams in the race. Our depth was on full display as a maroon swarm of freshmen showed they are continuing to develop really well over the weeks. Teaghanne Mahaffey, Mikayla Yanni, Zoey Rigdon, and Lara de Valk would have been scorers for the majority of the teams represented in the race. Congratulations to our frosh soph girls who placed 3rd.
Frosh Boys
Our freshman boys found themselves competing against a number of very strong programs, including teams who have freshman boys on their varsity rosters, but who were competing age pure at the Jessup meet. Our usual front trio was down to a duo as Zachary Downing had been ill and did not race. Luka Roganovic and Ethan Speck did their part by crossing the line in the top 20. Evan Leman and Liam Powers, both really coming on fast lately, were next, finishing in the top 50. Steadily improving Sam Dalmau was next as our 5th scorer. And just as those guys are rising, keep your eye on Matthew Byard, who is primed for a breakout to the next level; he was only a few seconds behind Sam. Cameron Holyoak and Irving Birmingham added to the depth of our freshman boys, who finished 6th in the team competition.
Soph Boys
Similar to the freshman boys race, the sophomore boys race featured a number of varsity runners who ran age pure for this invitational. Consistent top sophomore Johann Gothold, still recovering from the knee injury incurred by a large unleashed dog, was unavailable. Tyler Crabtree, who admirably rose up to nearly win the recent league race, mixed it up with the lead runners and placed 11th, breaking 11 minutes on the course for the first time. Davis Little, still working through an IT band issue, raced really well with Simon Aragoza, both making it in the top 20. Maximus Kotte led a maroon quartet of Nathan Olah, James Totaro, Keaton McDermott, Connor Groff, all breaking 12 minutes, and all finishing in the top 50 of more than 100 runners. It was a very strong performance resulting in a 2nd place team finish.
Varsity Girls
The varsity girls team is arguably our strongest squad. These ladies just continue to improve individually and as a team. This is a defending section championship team, and they are even faster this year. With a couple of sophomores–Addi Ewers and Sophie Hutchinson–and a couple of seniors–Ava Kopec and Grace Scott–the Lady ‘Cats had four runners working in the top 10 of over 100 competitors. They finished 4-7 to dominate the scoring. Junior Izzy Soto was 18th, and senior Sophie Bowen was just 12 seconds behind. Junior Lexi Kool was our 7th runner, and would have been a top 5 scorer for all but 3 teams in the race. Even with two of our top runners not available, Whitney won comfortably by more than 20 points.
Varsity Boys
After a spirited effort to beat Rocklin by 10 points and just 3 points behind Oak Ridge at the recent league meet, our varsity would enjoy being able to run a more controlled race at Jessup. Seniors Noah Lopez and David Hurren continued to lead the squad, going 9th and 12th respectively. Junior Jackson Geiselman, finally getting a chance to race after a required “sit-out” period as a result of transferring to Whitney during the summer, was our 3rd man, with senior Ty Ertel also in the top 30. Seniors Joel Tajiri and Perry Hutchinson both made it in the top 40, with junior Tyler Kubota just a few seconds back. Senior Noah Reed, not feeling 100%, placed a solid 58th out of over 150 runners. Whitney placed 3rd as a team.
JV Girls
With a couple upper class girls not available, we only had 4 runners for the JV race. At Monterey we had a similar scenario and moved sophomore stand-out Ava Hurren up to fill in the 5th JV spot, but for Jessup we just kept it as is. Junior Alishia Elie spearheaded the Whitney effort, placing 4th. Senior Kaylee Holyoak and junior Mandy Rao came in right after Alishia, in 6th and 7th respectively. So just like that, 3 Whitney girls were in. Mykenzie Holyoak placed an impressive 13th. We would have had a very strong score, but unfortunately without a 5th runner, we had no team result. When we have full numbers at the end of the season, our JV girls figure to be one of the top squads in the section.
JV Boys
Depth is not an issue with our boys JV team, as 15 runners toed the line for the maroon and gold. Possibly the only team in the section with noticeably more depth than Whitney is Davis HS, a large D1 program with 120+ runners on their team from a student body of nearly 3,000. And with legendary Coach Bill Gregg over there at the helm, it was no surprise when all we saw was a bunch of royal blue at the front of that race. By the midpoint, senior Landon Wibbeler was gaining on the Blue Devils’ lead pack. When Landon was told, “hey, how about you be the reason Davis doesn’t sweep everybody today”, he immediately said “yep” like he’d already done the calculations on the endeavor. Sure enough, Landon caught the pack and broke them up, getting in before Davis’s 5th runner. Junior Connor Rekers and senior Peyton Boyd were our 2nd and 3rd runners, placing 15th and 16th respectively. Completing our top 5 were junior Maxwell Bowen and senior Joey Gloria, both finishing in the top 30. A few seconds later came juniors Jack Regan, Aaron Humphries, Brady Quinn, and Victor Needham, all in the top 40. Next was junior newcomer Tyler Nordquist and fellow juniors Daniel Cho and Om Patel, with a trio of seniors, Carter McBride, Danial Malji, and Akanis Surapak rounding out the team. Whitney finished 2nd in JV team scoring.
The team continues to progress nicely. As we enter the second half of the season, up next is a section course preview at Willow Hills, which will be our largest meet to date this season.