In many ways, Whitney’s showing at the 2019 CIF State Championships was the best in school history. The only reason there’s any question is our girls team did not make it to the state meet, despite establishing the fastest team time for Whitney all-time. SJS D2 this year was extremely competitive, as the top three girls teams all placed in the top 11 at the state meet, and with that kind of fire power, it was very difficult for us to do better than 4th at section finals. But we did have two well-deserving girls, dedicated senior Brooke Giorgi and freshman sensation Katie Kopec, who both earned a berth to the state meet as individuals. Very tough to do!
The 2019 Whitney Varsity Boys followed up their second consecutive section title by running a phenomenal race at the state meet, placing 8th (best ever for any Whitney team), capping off a historic season and cementing the 2019 team as the best team in school history. Whitney was the only school in the top 10 to have fewer than 2000 students, demonstrating the disparity in school size of our competitors from the Southern Section (the only teams that outscored Whitney were all from the SS). For each of our 3 prior consecutive state berths, we felt like section finals was our “Superbowl”, and the effect was that our performance at the state meet hadn’t been our best. This season though, we felt the team was strong enough to win the section title while still looking to peak two weeks after sections; so we ran well enough at sections, but we made the state meet our focus, and our best race of the season was the state meet (including a team time faster than our race at Capital Cross, which is often a team’s season best).
Our dominant senior class did not disappoint. Austin Vasquez hit a blazing 15:22 (a 25-second state meet PR) for 12th place overall, best ever for a Whitney runner at state. Ethan Dodge was 37th in 15:46, more than half a minute faster than his previous state best. Brenden Jacoby nearly broke 16 minutes, going 16:03 which was not only a massive minute-plus improvement over his previous course best, but was a lifetime 5K PR by 20 seconds. Josh Tajiri hit 16:13, a half a minute faster than his previous best at Woodward Park. Jacob Harbert also not only PR’d on the course, but ran the fastest 5K of his life in 16:39. Junior Byron Chadwick crossed the line as our 5th and final scorer in 16:31, which was a 21-second course best for him. And fellow junior Jason Finta improved on his previous best, while breaking 17 minutes, hitting 16:58. Only 20 teams in the state–all divisions combined–got all 7 runners across the line at sub-17.
Last year, Whitney had a great showing, placing 10th, which was the first ever Whitney team to place in the top 10 at state, but this year’s team time at the state meet was more than a minute and a half faster (91-second improvement). Our average per runner in 2018 was 16:18, while the average per runner in 2019 was 15:59, a huge statement breaking the elite sub-16 barrier, and going nearly 20 seconds faster per top five runner.
Our top four varsity boys capped an incredible 4-year career on the Whitney XC Team, accomplishing many goals, hitting elite standards, and setting countless marks and records that figure to stand for a long time. But even with all that, there is one accomplishment so impressive and unique … something no other team in the history of California high school cross country has ever accomplished:
Seniors Austin, Ethan, Brenden and Josh competed together as a team qualifying for the CA state meet for the 4th time in four years, the ONLY team ever in the decades-long history of the California state meet to achieve this, regardless of division. Fourteen other schools over the years have fielded teams that included as many as 4 freshmen making it to state, and only one of them saw all four return as sophomores to make it to state; but then even that team did not make it in tact as juniors … leaving only our team of 4 guys as the only foursome to compete at state all four years of high school. Again, the only team ever–regardless of division–in the state of California to accomplish this.
There were many other milestones hit by the 2019 Whitney Cross Country Team …
80 runners on our roster was the most in Whitney history, breaking last year’s count, which broke 2017, which broke 2016… we just keep growing
Three SFL League Titles … Varsity Boys, Frosh-Soph Girls, and Frosh-Soph Boys
Three individual SFL Champions … Austin Vasquez, Cole Jamieson, Tyler Williams
Maximum allowable 7 squads of 7 runners advanced to section finals (first time in Whitney history; only two other programs managed this: Davis and Bella Vista… also Jesuit/St. Francis if you count that as one program)
All 7 Whitney squads placed 5th place or higher in the section, including two section titles: Varsity boys and freshman boys
Varsity boys completed a repeat as section champions (by a convincing 30 points)
Austin Vasquez was Whitney’s first-ever individual section champion
Austin Vasquez set the 4000m school record (12:10, which broke Ethan’s record from 2018), and set the 5K school record (15:17)
Grace Lathrop broke Jenica’s 5K school record by one second (18:32) in September
Then, at the state meet Katie Kopec broke Grace’s school record (18:13) in November
Varsity boys followed up 2018’s best ever 10th place finish as a team with an 8th place team finish (new highest team finish ever for Whitney)
Varsity boys team time broke the elite 16-min barrier at 15:59 (only the 6th Sac Joaquin Section D2 team in history to achieve this at the state meet)
Katie finished 24th overall at the state meet, eclipsing Jenica’s 27th, for the best finish at state in Whitney history
Austin finished 12th overall, eclipsing legendary Nate Wellington’s 13th, best ever for a Whitney runner
Austin was named to the All-NorCal’s 2nd Team
Katie was named to the All-NorCal’s 3rd Team
Ethan was named to the All-NorCal Team as an Honorable Mention
Of the 80 runners on the finalized roster when school started in August, not a single runner quit.
Overall an exceedingly successful 2019 season. We have 17 seniors (10 who are 4-yr seniors) whose high school cross country careers are in the books, and we will sadly bid them farewell. It’s good to know we still have track season! Many of our XC runners continue their progression through our 12-month program, so we’ll see y’all on the oval this spring 🙂