Western League Cluster #1 Oct 3rd 2017

The Islander Cross Country team had their first league meet in the tough Western segment of the City Conference last Tuesday and came out third for both the boys' and girls' team scores. The boys' team was bested by Scripps Ranch and Cathedral Catholic and finished in front of University City, La Jolla, and Serra.  University City and Scripps Ranch finished in front of our girls' team. Cathedral Catholic, La Jolla, and Serra followed.  My overall impression was that the boys did extremely well even though we lost 3 of our top runners to injuries this season. The rest of the team stepped up, however, and we're still solid. The girls' team had a few issues on the course, and a couple of runners were not up to par health-wise. We should come back strong next week for our 2nd cluster. When the times for all 20 of the schools that competed over the City Conference course last week (Western, Eastern, and City League schools), the Western girls posted the 5 top team times and the Western boys the top 3. The top 3 teams in each case were the same as the ranks for just the Western league with Coronado 3rd in each case. The boys' performance moved them into third place in the D-IV ranks while the girls remained in the number one spot.  At the end of the season, the top three D-IV boys' teams and the top two D-IV girls' team at the CIF finals will advance to the state meet. So the boys are in the running.

Brad Busby was our top finisher in the boys' Varsity Race with a time of 16:32 while placing 6th over the City Conference 3.08-mile course. He was followed by Ian Hurlburt (16:51), Patrick Harris (17:01), Connor Jaynes (17:03), Grant Hawthrone (17:51), Casey Harris (18:17), Chris Russell (18:19), and Cole Nichols (18:23). Times for the Morley field course, while about 50 yards short of 5000 meters, typically run 10-20 seconds slower than for a flat 5k course because of the terrain.  Most of the varsity boys posted Personal Records with the biggest PR going to Chris Russell who bettered his previous best by 1 minute and 40 seconds. The JV boys finishing were Kento Kitabayshi (20:01), Nicholas Inzunza (20:08), Christian Iverson (20:57), Aiden Baumann, Orian James, and Will  Leonard.

 For the girls, our top finisher was Teresa Perez with a time of 19:10 followed by Madden Hundley who clocked 19:52. Claire Morris was 3rd in 20:06 followed by Naya Tamariz (20:12), Abigail Hundley (20:17), Sofia  Van Arsdale (20:36), Natalya Gomez (21:06), and Katie Larratt.

The top JV finisher for the girls was Regina Czerewho who finished with a time of 19:23 over the girls' 2.5-mile Junior Varsity course. Abby Fabiszak was our 2nd JV finisher with a time of 20:08 followed by Kate Ruiz (20:59), Josie Morrissey, and Emma Kilfoil.