Patience is a good word to describe our approach to the cross country season, and to distance running and racing in general. The goal is to bring our best in the postseason after a long summer and fall season. Once we got through September and October with a very successful league campaign, how would our Wildcats do in November? There are many stories of legendary performances in May (track season) and November, but each season brings new wonderment in terms of whether or not our runners will rise up. For XC 2023, no doubt that patience paid off as Whitney runners made a resounding statement at Section Championships this past Saturday at Willow Hills in Folsom.
Among the many accolades, here are a few highlights worth mentioning:
- 3 section titles (JV girls, freshman boys, and varsity girls defending their title)
- 2 section team runner-ups (varsity boys, frosh soph girls)
- Runner-ups for varsity boys (in the past 5 seasons, Whitney boys have earned 3 section titles and 2 runner-ups)
- Both varsity teams qualified for state (boys are on a consecutive streak since 2016)
- 3 individual champions (JV girls Sophie Bowen, frosh soph girls Eva Soto, and varsity girls Karissa Chamberlain, making it 3 consecutive years a Whitney girl has won the individual varsity title)
- Every D2 girls race was won by a Whitney girl (Sophie B, Eva, Karissa)
- 15 top ten individual finishers
– Karissa, Jane, Grace, Addi (varsity girls)
– David (varsity boys)
– Sophie B, Lexi, Kaylee, Alishia, Mandy (JV girls)
– Landon (JV boys)
– Eva, Ava H (frosh soph girls)
– Luka, Ethan (frosh boys) - 2 Whitney all-time Willow Hills records (Karissa 18:38 5K, Eva 13:30 short course)
- 18 out of 19 frosh soph runners ran a Willow Hills personal best
- All 7 Whitney squads placed in the top 5 of each team result
- Varsity girls capped the 2023 season undefeated in the section
- Whitney had the best overall day of any program in the section in terms of number of squads competing, and average finish in the combined result of all races, all divisions
JV Boys
Our JV squad worked very hard at subsections to secure top 6 and advance to Finals. Working that hard is not something that can easily be replicated a week later, so a couple of our runners struggled at sections. Not Landon Wibbeler, who once again played spoiler to the dominant JV squads of Jesuit and Davis, being the first opponent to get into the top 10 and break up their scoring. Landon placed 7th and broke 18 minutes for the first time ever. Max Bowen, running well recently in the #2 spot, placed 30th. Peyton Boyd, as reliable as ever, placed 39th. And speaking of rising up, Jack Regan came in two places later. Connor Rekers, Aaron Humphries, and Joey Gloria provided the depth for our JV squad, which placed 5th as a team.
JV Girls
As has been mentioned throughout the season, our top JV runners would easily be scoring for the majority of varsity squads in the section. Our JV girls result from subsection transposed into the varsity race would put them at 8th, meaning we could have had two varsity teams qualify for Section Championships, if that were allowed. Our JV squad is so strong, they won the Section Finals race by a larger margin than our varsity girls did. Sophie Bowen not only led the Wildcats, she led everybody, finishing 1st and is Section Champion! Lexi Kool allowed only one other runner between her and Sophie, finishing 3rd. Kaylee Holyoak, running perhaps the best race of her high school career (a great way to run her final high school race), placed a very impressive 5th in a time that was just 3 seconds off her lifetime 5K best–something not typically done on the very difficult Willow Hills course. With a good kick on the final stretch, Alishia Elie pushed into 7th, followed by Mandy Rao running maybe her best race to place 9th. Yes, you are reading this correctly… Whitney had 5 girls in the top 9 of the race. Taylor Bettencourt got in at 28th place out of 82 runners; so our 6th girl was in before the 3rd runner of every team but two. Not far behind was Mykenzie Holyoak rounding out a dominant performance by our JV girls. Congratulations to the top JV team in the section, all divisions combined!
Varsity Boys
The 2022 iteration of Whitney boys varsity was among our most dominant ever. And then 5 of those seniors graduated. When that happens, some may naturally wonder what that means for team prospects the following year. To the 2023 boys’ credit, they put in the time during summer, kept to business through the training cycles and didn’t allow the competitive level to fall away. Though not the favorites to win the SFL, these boys rose up at the right time to upset Oak Ridge and hold off fast-rising Rocklin to claim a league title at the end of October. But could they continue the trajectory into November at the section level and earn a berth to state? If the inspiring, gutsy effort they each gave at section finals was any indication, most onlookers knew the answer before the official score was posted. With Jesuit displaying one of their strongest line-ups in recent history this season, and Vacaville beating them earlier this season, it looked like two teams in D2 were out of reach, leaving a scrum for the 3rd and final spot to the state meet. Our talking points were to hold off Rocklin, Bella Vista, and rising Granite Bay, while trying to close the gap on Vacaville. Usually in the early stages of races, our primary opponents are positioned ahead of our runners as we calibrate pace then go to work as the race develops, consistently improving our score as the race develops. But in the early minutes of this one, Vacaville was not a solid presence up front as expected, and no Rocklin jerseys were near the front. And that’s pretty much how the race unfolded. Since Whitney runners aren’t characterized by blowing up mid-race, it was looking pretty confidently like the Wildcats were in the driver’s seat for section runner-up to Jesuit, even before the completion of the first loop. Consistent #1 David Hurren pushed hard with an elite group of D2’s best to finish 4th. Noah Lopez just missed top 10, placing 12th. Perry Hutchinson and Jackson Geiselman finished nearly side by side, and our 3rd and 4th runners made it into the top 20. At this point, Vacaville had only two runners in, Bella Vista had only their top runner through, and Rocklin still had no finishers. All we needed was our 5th runner to seal the deal, and that was Noah Reed. Within 20 seconds, Noah was crossing the finish line. Eight seconds after that came Ty Ertel. Joel Tajiri was just three-tenths of a second from eclipsing Rocklin’s 5th man. What figured to be a tight battle for the 3rd berth to state ended up being Whitney not merely grabbing the 3rd spot, but upsetting Vacaville and seizing 2nd place by a decisive 21 points. Whitney had amassed a 38-point margin over Bella Vista, and a surprising 56-point advantage over Rocklin. To say the Whitney boys showed up to compete would be a massive understatement. It was a huge statement, and with the runner-up plaque, Whitney boys have been either section champions or runners-up every season dating back to 2018. It is worth noting, Jesuit which has been a D1 fixture, came into D2 due to a quirky rule; if not for that blip, our boys would have defended their section title. Either way, the 2023 iteration of Whitney boys varsity has added their name to the list of legendary performers when it matters most. Congratulations to the 2023 D2 Runner-ups.
Varsity Girls
Last season, the boys squad enjoyed a regular season of invitationals and league competition, going undefeated in the section. In 2023, it was the girls’ turn to be tagged with the #1 ranking in the section, trying to back up that ranking every time they toed the line. But that’s just what they did, all the way to section finals. The team was fronted by Karissa Chamberlain when it mattered most. That “patient” moniker really stood out for her in the varsity girls race as the #1 seed from Patterson took off and the #2 seed from Rio Americano chased her; Karissa wisely let that unfold as she settled into the main pack and calculated her moves. Even with the two frontrunners developing a lead, the main threat was Granite Bay’s Emily Allison, who twice pushed Karissa to the bitter end in league competition. Karissa pulled away from the pack to begin hunting down the leaders. In the end, even Emily was outdistanced this time by Karissa, who had developed a decisive margin with 1K to go, and eventually won by a comfortable 13 seconds. The 4-pack behind Karissa is what secured the team result though. Jane Landon, in one of her best races, powered her way to 5th place. Grace Scott, perhaps the most consistent of all, placed 6th. Addi Ewers, who held back in the early going, came on very strong to finish 8th, with Sophie Hutchinson coming in 11th just 9 seconds later, almost making it 5 in the top 10. Ava Kopec was 13th and Izzy Soto was 18th, making it all 7 in the top 20. Our 7 were in before Granite Bay’s 5th and before River Valley’s 4th; all other teams had either one or none of their runners across before the entire Whitney contingent got through. So Whitney capped off the season as undefeated D2 section champions, also achieving the fastest time in the combined result.
Frosh Boys
At subsections, Whitney was 3rd–57 points behind Vacaville, but just 4 points behind Bella Vista. Our talking points were essentially that Vacaville may be uncatchable, and to focus on trying to beat Bella Vista for 2nd place. But with Vacaville moving their top freshman up to varsity, that opened the door a crack. The bigger factor was Whitney got all 5 scoring runners in before Vacaville got their 3rd across; so even if Vacaville had their top runner, Whitney may have done enough to still beat them. Luka Roganovic and Ethan Speck each fought their way into the top 10. Evan Leman, having a tremendous finish to his season, came flying in with Zachary Downing, both well in the top 20, and the makings of a huge upset were underway. Matthew Byard, in perhaps his best race of the season, believing his fitness could handle a faster pace, also managed a top 20 finish. Liam Powers and Sam Dalmau both pushed hard to get in the top 30, and the upset was complete. Whitney had lowered the score to 49 while both Vacaville and Bella Vista stalled in the 60’s. An incredible championship race for our young freshman squad. Congratulations, Section Champions!
Frosh Soph Girls
Our girls program top to bottom is very strong. The only team that could consistently beat our frosh soph girls this season was Granite Bay, which has even more young talent and depth than Whitney. Still, nobody could contend with Eva Soto once we got to championship season. Eva not only won the D2 race, but beat the top D1 runner in the combined event to post the fastest 3400 meter time on the day, regardless of division. In the process, Eva set a new 3400m Willow Hill school record, besting an 11-year-old mark held by the legendary Wildcat Jordan Sienkiewicz. Ava Hurren, dealing with a shoe falling apart during the race, managed in impressive 5th place. Camryn Mougeotte and Rae Britton were 12th and 13th, followed by ever-rising Abigail Speck finishing in the top 20. Teaghanne Mahaffey and Kylee Barrett were in just a few seconds later to solidify 2nd place by a cushion of nearly 40 points over 3rd place Golden Valley.
Soph Boys
Our sophomore boys were facing a very difficult pair of dominant teams in Jesuit and Vacaville. With most of the top 10 runners being from those two teams, the challenge would be could Whitney hold off everyone else for 3rd. Johann Gothold and Tyler Crabtree did their part to secure the best team finish as they placed 14th and 16th respectively to lead Whitney. Also pushing into the top 20 was Simon Aragoza, followed by Davis Little. At this point, Jesuit and Vacaville were all in and clearly going 1-2, and River Valley had two runners in before Johann and Tyler. So it would take a tight team spread to get our 5th man in before River Valley. Their 3rd man came in right after Davis, but James Totaro–on pace for a full minute PR–flew in just a half second later, and just like that, Whitney scoring was done with still two River Valley runners out. Their 4th runner came in, then Maximus Kotte finished to displace their 5th man. Keaton McDermott beat the remaining River Valley runners to round out the maroon wave. It ended up very close… Whitney was 3rd with 87 points, and River Valley scored 91. Exciting race! Great work by our sophomore boys to place 3rd in a very competitive field.
STATE MEET
The CIF State Championship Meet is next, and will be our final competition of the 2023 season. It is rare for a single team to have both varsity teams qualify for state, but it is especially unusual for both to finish in the top 2 (section champions and section runner-up). Both squads go into Clovis on the Saturday after Thanksgiving having a shot at top 10 at state. Good luck to all of our state runners as they bring their best to the most competitive state meet in the nation.