The Whitney Cross Country Team raced at the massive NorCal premiere preview Capital Cross Challenge at Arcade Creek this past Saturday. Almost 3,000 runners from over 100 high schools participated, including many of the best programs in California and even from out of state. Not to mention four college races and middle school too.
Both of Whitney’s varsity squads were entered in the seeded races, which featured the top programs. We hit a couple of impressive benchmarks …
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Whitney’s men’s and women’s all-time individual 5K school records were broken on Saturday
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Both varsity squads ran team times that establish each squad as fastest in Whitney history
Our men’s team placed 4th with Austin Vasquez finishing 3rd out of nearly 400 runners. Austin clocked 15:17 over the 5K course, shattering the previous school record of 15:37. Ethan Dodge clocked 15:49 to finish 15th. Josh Tajiri (huge PR at 16:08), fast-rising junior Byron Chadwick (huge PR at 16:18), and Brenden Jacoby (huge PR at 16:28, while on a controlled pace) all placed in the top 70 to ensure the elite team finish, and once again performing as one of the top couple of teams in the section, all divisions. Riley Carroll (16:31), Aidan Ransford (17:06) and Aidan Redding (17:13) all PR’d as well. This is the fastest Whitney team in history with average 5K time of 16:00.
The Lady Wildcats finished 3rd as a team, led by Grace Lathrop’s 11th place finish. Grace eclipsed the 5K school record by one second, running 18:32. Katie Kopec (19:04) and Brooke Giorgi (19:10) were 28th and 32nd. Natalie Eppler and Jessica Becker each broke 20 minutes and placed in the top 70 to secure a top 3 finish. Like the men’s team, the ladies ran the fastest team time for a 5K in Whitney history. Grace, Brooke, and Katie each hit lifetime 5K PR’s.
Whitney’s young squads are just as strong, as the frosh soph boys team placed 2nd with Ryan Hart, Mateo Delgadillo, and Cole Jamieson all finishing in the top 6 and hitting huge PR’s under 11 minutes for the 2 mile distance. James Bowen, able to train fully more recently after modifying for sore knees, has been moving up and scored as our 4th man. Charlie Gioia, Fekadu Cantrell, Connor Jacoby, Brandon Olah, Nick Herrmann, and Callum Turner all hit PR’s for two miles.
Frosh soph girls were 8th, led by Tyler Williams, Emma Martinez, and Marianna Blanding, all breaking the 14-minute barrier, setting PR’s. Ashlyn Fujioka, Rachel Tajiri, Ashanti Elie, Cailin Fitzgerald, and Sydney Woolley all hit PR’s as well.
In the Open Division, Whitney had over 20 runners, led by Jacob Harbert’s 2nd place finish overall with a lifetime best 10:44. Tyler Hawkins and Malachai Amore nearly broke 11 minutes. Brandon Valdez, Jared Regan, Jaden Rapp, Cade Schwab, Hunter Schwab, Cooper Collier, Levi Chadwick, Nick Reis, Dario Ruscica, Ethan Dunnery, Corbin Peek, Bryan Eickmann, Billie Cunningham, and Tyler Herceg … ALL hit lifetime PR’s for the 2-mile distance. Our Open squad placed 3rd as a team, showing tremendous depth for our guys.
The Lady Wildcats also finished 3rd in the Open Division. Haley Bedrin was 3rd individually, leading her team, and setting a lifetime PR at 13:30, followed by fellow junior Emily Peterson who finished in the top 30. Jane Sherman, who has really been coming on lately, Katelynne Finta, and Olivia Sauer, all broke 15 minutes, and crossed in the top 40 to boost Whitney’s score. Each of them PR’d. Emma Carlson, Bella Nijmeh, Grace Ryu, Isabella Dollar, Skylar Jones, Jaqui Alvarez, and Anna Giorgi all hit PR’s as well.
Of the 6 races at Capital Cross in which Whitney fielded a team, the Wildcats earned team places of 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, and 8th … and this at a massive meet that included over 100 high schools. Our runners should be very proud to be recognized as one of the premiere programs in Northern California. Nice job, ‘Cats !!!