Whitney Cross Country began the season this past Saturday at the Sierra Invitational. There were 32 teams at the meet with all runners at all levels competing over a 2 mile course. The Wildcats came away with top 5 in all team races, including two team wins and three team 3rd places. Whitney won the “Overall Best Program” Award, given to the team with the highest average team finish after combining all the race results.
Whitney girls won both the junior girls race and senior girls race, and placed 3rd in the freshman girls race. Eva Soto was the individual winner in the senior girls race, Kaylee Smith won the junior girls race, Kayla Gold placed 2nd in the sophomore girls race (not enough runners to score as a team though), and Ava Takeuchi won the freshman girls race.
For the Whitney boys, Josh Landon was the individual winner in the junior boys race, equaling the best time of the day overall, and coming within less than a second of the all-time Whitney school record on the Sierra College 2-mile course (set two years ago by our newest coach, alum Jackson Geiselman). Our junior boys placed 5th. Zach Downing led the senior boys to a 3rd place finish, placing 6th individually. Sophomore boys also placed 3rd, led by Lucas Rolin crossing the line in 6th as well.
There were 25 Whitney boys who broke 14 minutes, with 18 of 19 improving on their previous best for this course, by an average of a whopping 52 seconds each! We had 6 girls also break 14, with all four returners in that category averaging over 40 seconds improvement each. Testament to how committed these runners have been, and hopefully a good omen for how the season may unfold.