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.

South Bay and Dana Hills Invites 22 and 23 Sept 2017

For the second week in a row we split the team between 2 meets. Last Saturday we sent many of our varsity runners to the Dana Hills High School Invite at Dana Point to run in some of the faster races, while others sat out the weekend or ran locally at the South Bay Invite in Rohr Park hosted by Sweetwater High School.  The Dana Hills race had around 5000 entries from all over the state with grade-level races from three divisions. Teresa Perez and Madden Hundley, because they had fast performances at the Woodbridge invite the previous week, were allowed in the Division I/Senior race. This race features seniors from the largest schools as well as individuals from any grade-level who have proven that they can run with this group. Perez finished 8th overall with a time of 17:09 followed by Hundley who finished 96th in 19:20 out of 207 finishers. All races at this meet were over the same fast 3-mile course. The rest of our races were in the D-II division which I had us moved up to from D-III for better competition.  In the girls' freshman race Madden's sister, Abigail Hundley, finished 17th out of 183 finishers with a time of 20:16.  The best performance for the boys was turned in by Brad Busby who placed 10th in the Junior race with a time of 15:54 followed by Connor Jaynes who clocked 16:26 while placing 22nd out of 215 finishers. Ian Hurlburt had a nice race in the senior boys' race in which he placed 34th in 16:22 out of 195 finishers. In the boys' sophomore race Cole Mullins ran 16:47 while placing 28th out of 235 finishers. Finally, in the boys' freshman race Grant Hawthorne placed 21st out of 246 finishers with a time of 17:40.

 

The previous day, on Friday at the South Bay Invite, our top performance was turned-on by freshman Jessica Ehret who placed 9th in the girls' varsity race with a time of 16:45 over the 2.5-mile girls' course. She was followed by Natalya Gomez who clocked 17:13 to place 21st out of 157 finishers. I placed Ehret in the varsity race rather than the frosh/soph race for better competition. The top finisher in the frosh/soph race was 26 seconds slower. The other girls running on Friday were Abby Fabiszak (20:20), Josie Morrissey (22:01), Kate Ruiz (22:27), and Emma Kilfoil (23:18).  The three boys running in the 5000-meter boys' races were Chris Russell (19:05), Nicholas Inzunza (21:10), and James Cook (22:16).

Woodbridge and Mt. Carmel 16 Sept 2017

On Sept 17th 2017 the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams competed in one of the biggest cross country meets in the Country, the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic held at the Silverlakes Sports Park in Norco California. This is a 2-day meet with the weaker teams competing on Friday and the stronger teams on Saturday. Over 300 schools entered with over 5000 runners registered. The fastest varsity races were on Saturday Night under the lights placed around the Silverlakes soccer fields. Our boys ran at 7:30 pm and the girls competed in the rated race at 8:55 pm. All races were run over the same 3-mile course. In our boys’ varsity race our top 3-boys, Brad Busby, Ian Hurlburt, and Patrick Harris finished in a virtual dead heat with a time of 15:55 followed by Connor Jaynes in 16:29, Cole Mullins in 16:37, Casey Harris in 16:46, and Cole Nichols in 17:23. When all results from both days are combined we placed 4^th among the San Diego Section Schools that ran. Sage Creek easily won the team competition with a low-score of 43 followed by El Camino, Mission Hills, Coronado, then Poway out of the 31 San Diego Section school entered. Sage Creek has a powerful boys’ team and is in the same CIF division as Coronado (D-IV). El Camino and Mission Hills are D-I teams and Poway is a D-II team.

In the girls’ race, which was the 2^nd fastest of the two-day event, Teresa Perez nearly caught the leader to finish second with a time of 16:55.9 to Grace Catena from Palos Verdes who ran 16:55.4. Our second finisher was Madden Hundley who clocked 18:01 followed by Naya Tamirez (18:37), Jessica Ehert (18:50), Claire Morris (18:52), Abigail Hundley, and Natalya Gomez.  When the San Diego Section results were compiled from all races, Coronado came out on top with 79 points. Second was University City with 107 followed by El Camino (110), Cathedral Catholic (117), and Sage Creek with 132. Out of top 10 teams Coronado and Sage Creek were the only D-IV teams. Coronado, University City, and Cathedral are all in the Western League. Among San Diego Runners Perez’s time was over 30 seconds faster than the runner-up, Elise Boisvert from University City, who ran 17:29.4. Converted to 5000 meters Perez’s time equates to 17:35, over a minute faster than her former personal best run last year at the Stanford Invitational. She averaged 5:38 per mile. The Monday coaches poll now ranks the Coronado girls’ team 2^nd to La Costa Canyon, up from 5^th last week. This changes each week depending on the previous week’s races went. The rest of the top ten schools are Rancho Bernardo (3^rd), Canyon Crest (4^th), University City (5^th), El Camino (6^th), Cathedral Catholic (7^th), Sage Creek (8^th), Del Norte (9^th), and Scripps Ranch (10^th).

Our other race last Saturday was the Mt. Carmel Invitational at Morley Field where we entered several JV and new runners since we were limited to only 7-person varsity teams at Woodbridge. Since the Mt. Carmel races were all in the morning for our division, I could attend both events. Our 2 best finishers were Grant Hawthorne and Sofia Van Arsdale in the Division II freshmen races. Both placed 9^th in their races with Hawthorne running 17:56 in the boys’ 2.95-mile race and Van Arsdale clocking 18:03 in the girls’ 2.75-mile race.  Other finishers in the boys’ races were Chris Russell (18:53), Kent Kitabayshi (21:05), Orian James (22:05), Aiden Baumann (22:05), Will Leonard (23:25), and Christian Iverson (23:25). Also finishing for the girls were Regina Czerewko (22:09), Josie Morrissey (23:10), Kate Ruiz (23:14), and Abby Fabiszak (23:49).