Recap
The LJCD XC team competed on Thursday in their first Coastal league meet, called a cluster meet since it involves all six teams in the league. Held at Mission Bay Park under sunny skies and consistent wind, the 5K course is flat and grassy, easy on the legs but not very fast. The Coastal League has been extremely competitive over the years. In 2015, five of the six State Meet D-5 qualifiers from San Diego were from the Coastal League, including eventual 3rd-place State finisher Francis Parker. Parker only lost one runner to graduation from this strong girls team, and only two from their boys team. Bishop’s boys, who edged both LJCD and Parker at State last year, lost their #6 and #7 runners to graduation. All of this is to say that the league is tough!
The JV boys started the racing. Injuries have our JV team at four runners – not enough to score as a team. Maxx Song was the 1st LJCD finisher, in 22:01 and 11th place. Sophomore Arthur Zhang had his best race of the season, finishing in 22:29 and 16th. Freshman Dante Carnecchia, finally able to race after a nagging injury, finished in 23:20, while Tom Zhou came across the line in 24:41.
The Country Day girls saw the entire team race for the first time this season. This is a misleading, actually, as Ellie Daugherty and Sydney Strawn were under instructions to jog rather than race as they continue to rehab from injuries. In front of these two, Vivian Cai and Sofia Besharati completed the race in 28:52 and 27:03. Ilaria Comfort held off another runner during a long sprint for a terrific finish (24:06, 22nd). Nicole Parry was just in front of her, finishing in 23:58 and 21st. For Isabel Miralles, this was her first race since breaking her foot at a track meet in May. This makes her time of 20:51, 19 seconds faster than last year, even more impressive. She finished 5th. Lexi Watknis saw her friendly rivalry with Parker’s Brooke Trossen continue. The two ran side by side for 2.5 miles before Brooke created separation and went on to win. Lexi improved over last year by 56 seconds and was close to her 5K personal record, set last year at State. Overall the girls finished 3rd with 66 points, behind Parker and Santa Fe Christian.
The varsity boys saw every runner either improve over last year or set a personal record for 5K. Nikko Sambold was our top finisher in 10th place and 18:19, over 2 minutes faster than last year. Alex Hill was next in 16th and 18:52, 22 seconds better than 2015. Nico Barrera was our 3rd finisher in 19:11, a 36 second improvement. Nick Kovtun improved by nearly 2 minutes with his 19:22 finish. Steven Shi (19:27), Dakota Hernandez (19:33), and Spencer Dee (20:38) ran well to set new 5K p.r.’s. The boys ran very well as a pack and finished with an impressive 1-5 gap (the time difference between our 1st and 5th scorers) of 68 seconds, and a 2-5 gap of 35 seconds. As a team the boys 4th, behind Bishop’s, Parker, and league newcomer Orange Glen.
The Torreys race next at the Mt. SAC Invitational, the largest cross country meet in the country (and the world, so they say). On October 27th we will be on our home course at UCSD for the 2nd and final Coastal League cluster meet.
