The Whitney varsity women’s cross country team stepped to the line Saturday, October 4, at the Bulldog Invitational for a 5K race at Willow Hills in Folsom, site of the Sac Joaquin Section Championships. The Lady ‘Cats backed up their #1 Section ranking by taking the win in a race that featured multiple highly-ranked teams. Top runner senior Sophie Hutchinson, coming off a week of modified training, still managed 4th place to lead Whitney. But it was the strength of the pack that solidified the dominant team performance. Fellow seniors Addi Ewers and Jane Landon, along with junior Eva Soto, all placed in the top 10, and all finished before the #2 runner of St. Francis, which finished 2nd as a team behind Whitney. Sophomore Kaylee Smith completed the scoring by finishing in 15th overall, which was ahead of St. Francis’s 4th runner.
Whitney’s team average of top 5 scorers was 18:57, joining only 5 teams in history to break 19 minutes for a team average on the very challenging 5K course at Willow Hills. All 7 of Whitney’s runners hit lifetime personal bests for the Willow Hills course, which bodes well for section championships coming mid-November. This current line-up continues to set records as the fastest Whitney team in school history, and one of the fastest teams in the 200+School Sac Joaquin Section history. This line-up remains undefeated for the season, and they take their perfect record to Clovis in two weeks for a state course preview race at Woodward Park.
The Wildcats varsity men’s team also toed the line at Willow Hills. Senior Captain Davis Little led the 1-2 punch with training partner, sophomore Josh Landon. Both Davis and Josh hit a lifetime best by a significant margin–a full minute each–on the difficult course, placing 15th and 17th respectively. Senior Johann Gothold held his familiar spot as our #3 runner, followed by junior Evan Leman in a surprising performance to rise up as Whitney’s 4th man. Crossing with Evan was fellow junior Luka Roganovic to cap Whitney’s scoring. Juniors Zachary Downing and Ethan Speck rounded out the team effort that resulted in a solid 5th place team finish among very tough competition. Jesuit, boasting a #2 national ranking, won comfortably, with fellow SFL opponents Davis and Folsom, both sitting near the top of the Sac Joaquin Section D1 rankings, rounding out the top 3 teams. Whitney beat other SFL rivals Granite Bay, Rocklin, and dangerously improving Del Oro. At the section level, only Jesuit, Granite Bay, and Rocklin are in D2 with Whitney, with the latter two teams being a main focus for the Wildcats in the postseason.