Cross Country 2009 League Champions
Posted November 4th, 2009 in Athletics, High School Comments Off
Cross Country 2009 League Champions: Click image to view the Cross Country Photo Gallery
Compliments Coach Sean:
We traveled to Calvary Chapel, Moreno Valley on Friday the 30th for the Christian League Championships. I felt like overall, it was a pretty successful day. In the boys varsity race, we beat out Xavier Prep, 28 to 43, and finished 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 12. I was pleased that we put 5 in the top 10. I sent Christian out pretty aggressively, which was a good thing for him, but I think if we would have ran a little more conservatively, he would have been right there with Ben and Thomas. In the boys JV race, Cody had a great race and looked awesome, and Brad did very well, given he has been sick all week. In the girls varsity race, Nicole ran a great race, and Hannah did excellent as well.
Caleb Meister: 16:22, 2nd place. Went out a little too conservatively, and even though he ran a pretty solid race, he couldn’t quite catch Aquinas in the end. PR by 26 seconds on the course. I think he learned a lot from the race and knows that going out a little harder would have done him well.
Eric Garcia: 16:37, 3rd place. Very tough race for Eric. Went out hard in the beginning, which was okay, but then struggled to bring it home. I think he knows what he needs to do to get back to where he should be, and I’ll leave it at that. Very talented kid who is very fit, and we still have 4 weeks left in the season, so I’m confident he will figure it out.
Jon Esparza: 16:42, 4th place. Allergies all week kind of affected him. He raced like Caleb, a little too conservative in the beginning. Wasn’t happy with his time, but I was happy that he got us a 4th place finish. Helped the team bring home a league title, and is very fit and ready to pop a big one in CIF.
Ben Rinard: 17:08, 9th place. Very good race for Big Ben. Came up big for us. PR on this course by 1:07. Just to give you an idea of how deep the league is this year, last year Ben ran 18:15 and finished 6th in league. This year he runs 17:08 and finishes 9th! The league is a lot stronger now. Really stepped up as a senior, very proud of his effort. Finished very strong.
Thomas Mutch: 17:12, 10th place. Great race for him as well. Ran aggressively and showed that toughness that has made him so good this year. Him and Ben worked very well together, and dominated the chase pack in the race. Eventually, they pulled away and proved that they are both all-league runners.
Christian More: 17:28, 12th place. Went our very aggressively, put himself in about 5th place at 1.5 miles. Even though he faded a bit in the last mile, I was happy that he didn’t run conservatively like he normally does, and he took a risk. I think it was a breakthrough race, and he is going to be big for us in the next few weeks.
Tim Boore: Out sick today. He will be our 7th runner at CIF.
Cody Brobston: 20:09, 13th place in JV race. Great race for Cody. He really improved from Tuesday where he struggled. Ran aggressively, an improved by 21 spots from Tuesday! Very respectable time for a freshman, he should be very proud of his race.
Brad Gustafson: 21:05, 21st place in JV race. Solid race for being sick all week. I was very proud of him for pushing through. Although it might not have been the way he wanted to finish the season, he should be proud that he was able to fight through sickness and gut out a solid finish. Outkicked a couple of guys in the end.
Hannah Cortez: 23:38, 22nd place. Second best time all year! Hannah went out smart and slowly moved her way up in the race. Great way to finish out her senior year of cross country. She has been a great addition to the team this year, great attitude and dedication, and has definitely helped Nicole have a successful season. I look forward to seeing her in track!
Nicole Dinisi: 19:45, 5th place. Great race for Nicole! The girls varsity is also a lot deeper than last year. Last year, she would have won league by 23 seconds! Last year ran 23:32, so she improved by 3:47!!! Ran a very smart race, latched on to a couple of Aquinas girls and let them lead her to a good time and a good finish. The top 5 girls separated themselves from the rest of the league. Had a nice finishing kick. Nicole moves on to CIF in two weeks as an individual, great job!
Our next meet is the CIF Southern Section Prelims at Mt. Sac on Saturday, November 14th, time TBA.
My apologies for not doing a write up of League Meet #4, it has been an extremely busy week. To recap, we were at Linfield Christian, a very long course. It was kind of cold and windy, and the times mean absolutely nothing since the course was long. I will say that the boys varsity tried to take it easy and just come out with a win, and it worked. We scored 32, and Xavier Prep scored 38. We only ran 5 guys in varsity, and we placed 2, 3, 4, 11, and 12. In the boys JV race, we made a last-minute decision and raced Christian. We were going to give him the day off, but he wanted to race! He won the race pretty comfortably. Cody had an off day and finished in 34th place. Brad was sick and didn’t race today. I had to pull Tim from the race because his hips were hurting. On the girls side, Nicole was a little sick today, so I pulled her after 2 miles to save up for Friday’s league finals. Hannah finished in 21st place in the league. Needless to say, I was very glad when the day was over!
