On Saturday, November 1st, all the SFL cross country teams converged on Jessup University’s course for League Championships. This season’s finale looked to be especially competitive, on top of an already elite league across the board. With multiple highly ranked section teams, the phrase “it’s easier to win a section title than a league title” has been uttered quite often among SFL teams this season.
The first gun was for the JV Girls (frosh soph), with St. Francis and Davis, both talented and deep programs, figuring to battle for the banner. At SFL #1, Whitney edged out the rest of the league for 3rd, but not by much (Oak Ridge by 2pts, Granite Bay by 5pts), so retaining that position was not going to be easy. But on championship race day, Whitney runners typically bring championship race performance. The sophomore duo of Gemma Scamporrino and Nina Williams placed similarly to how they did at SFL #1, except this time they traded places. Nina was 13th and Gemma finished 15th. Top freshman Roslyn Hurren was about 10 seconds back in 19th. Whitney’s top 3 outscored Granite Bay’s top 3. Less than a minute later, Josalyn Hinkson led teammates Gwen Powers and Mira Annapareddy, followed by Lauren McMillan and Hailey Patterson, ensuring our depth would outpace both Granite Bay and Oak Ridge. What was a razor thin margin in September became a more comfortable gap in November ahead of 4th place at Finals, as Whitney’s JV girls locked up 3rd place in the SFL.
The second race of the day was the JV Boys (frosh soph). With powerhouse Davis resting their top runners at SFL #1, and Whitney’s top runner from SFL #1 Rylan Whitmore being pulled from JV to race Varsity, placing top 3 at Finals would be quite challenging. Freshman Lucas Rolin led the way for the Wildcats, placing 7th and beating both freshmen who beat him at SFL #1. Luke Martin was next for Whitney in 14th, just 12 seconds behind Lucas. Ary Swamy led a whole swarm of maroon jerseys, including Brian Hanks, Dante Ferretti, Liam O’Malley, and Mason Deeble, all within 4 seconds of each other in the top 30. Ovi Rodrigo, who improved from 79th at SFL #1 to 33rd at SFL Finals, was just a few seconds back with Brandon Goodin. Mohammed Ayyad and Marcus Clinciu kept the maroon coming less than a half minute later, followed by Kellen Levine-Flandrup and Sam Calabrese. Rounding out the depth for Whitney was Braeden Cochenour, Joseph Piersante, Mason Chu, and Cooper Stewart. The team finished 4th overall, just 7 points from 3rd place Oak Ridge.
The varsity competition began with the girls race. Whitney went in favored to win, but this would not be a given, as three other teams were up high in the state rankings: Davis, Oak Ridge, and St. Francis. At SFL #1, what figured to be a tight battle ended up being a Whitney win by a comfortable margin of 20 points. What would the story be at SFL Finals, where so many high level teams were in postseason form? It ended up being almost a duplicate. At SFL #1, Whitney filled 4 of the top 7 places, and did the same at SFL Finals. Whitney leader Sophie Hutchinson placed 2nd, Eva Soto was 4th, Addi Ewers was 6th, and Jane Landon placed 7th. Key runner Kaylee Smith, holding down the role as 5th scorer, knew to set herself up to beat the 5th runner of every other team; she not only did that, but also beat the 4th runner of every team. Ava Hurren was a half minute back, and newest member to the varsity squad, sophomore Izzy Leal, rounded out the top 7. Camryn Mougeotte and Rae Britton both broke 21 minutes, followed by Abigail Speck and Zoey Rigdon. Kylee Barrett was next for Whitney, and then Inessa Maldonado, Sophia Jovanoski, and Lara de Valk completed the team. When the final score was tallied, Whitney once again won by over 20 points. As multiple high level teams in this league have continued to rise, the Lady Wildcats also continue to rise and still got it done as this current front 7 line-up remains undefeated. The dominance of our girls can also be expressed on the national level. Even as Whitney has never appeared in national rankings, between last season and this season there have been 6 times where Whitney has defeated nationally ranked teams. The question will be how long can these girls keep alive an undefeated title run? Up next is Sections, and then State.
The boys varsity race was a foregone conclusion, at least in terms of who would win. Jesuit, ranked #3 in the nation, would win comfortably. That means finishing 2nd in this league is far from weak. Davis and Oak Ridge figured to battle closely for runner-up, and Folsom is having its strongest team perhaps in their history, eyeing a possible berth to state. Unless something weird was to happen, the top 4 teams looked fairly predictable and set, meaning the excitement and mystery of this championship for Whitney would be the battle for 5th, with an outside chance of maybe eclipsing Folsom for 4th. Our usual 1-2 punch of Josh Landon and Davis Little did their part by running in the mid-15’s, which would have been good enough to win on this course just a couple years ago. Fast-rising Evan Leman also did his part as Whitney needed someone to close the vulnerable gap between usual #3 runner Johann Gothold and the rest of the team. Zachary Downing and newest member to the varsity team, sophomore Rylan Whitmore ensured there was no gap after #4, both finishing within 10 seconds of Johann. In the next half minute, Luka Roganovic, Ethan Speck and Simon Aragoza crossed the line. Seniors Maximus Kotte, Keaton McDermott, Nathan Olah, James Totaro, and Tyler Crabtree all raced their final high school league contest, while a slew of juniors finished among these seniors, including Lharsen Marquez, Cameron Holyoak, Liam Powers, Irving Birmingham, James Partida, Maddock Su, Kekoa Mamuad, Matthew Byard, Aarav Dalal, and Samuel Dalmau. Toughing it out at not 100% were Jonah Nunes and Connor Groff, as well as first time senior runner Sam Giouzelis. The team met the goal of holding off Granite Bay and Rocklin to finish 5th. Significantly, Whitney really closed the gap on the leading teams. Whereas Granite Bay was just one point behind us at SFL #1, and two other teams within close range, Whitney climbed within 10 points of Folsom, while gapping nearest contender Rocklin by nearly 70 points. This trajectory bodes very well for November and postseason.