Dana Hills Invitational
On Saturday the cross country teams travelled north to Dana Point to compete at the Dana Hills Invitational. This is typically a meet that sees lots of fast times and personal records, with a net down-hill course that runs through and around the namesake high school for three miles. Mild temperatures and sunny skies completed the near-perfect race conditions yesterday, and the Torreys did indeed post many fast results.
Lexi Watkins again competed in the invitational division of the races, pitting her against many of the best runners in the state. This meant an early morning drive for Lexi (and a couple of her coaches), leaving the school at 6am in order to be ready to race at 8:15. The course begins on a field but quickly narrows as it turns onto the interior lanes of the school. The talented field went out very fast, clogging those lanes and making it difficult to pass. The field began to spread out at the same time as the course became less narrow, and Lexi found herself in a secondary group behind the leaders. Passing the 1st mile marker in an appropriately aggressive 5:25, she was not far off the leaders and in position for a great race. But the 2nd mile is perhaps the most important, as fatigue starts to set in, there are not as many competitors around to feed off of, and it is harder to focus. Lexi came through the 2nd mile in 11:19, which is faster than her 2-mile p.r. on the track. During the 2nd mile Lexi both moved up into 5th place and separated herself from the field behind her. She would spend the 3rd mile by herself, in chase mode. The final mile of the race is entirely flat or downhill, including a descent to the stadium track and then the last 500 meters on the track. The leaders came into the stadium side by side and pushed each other all the way to the finish, crushing the course record in the process. 16:15 and 16:16 now stand as the new marks for senior and junior girls, respectively. The next two girls entered the track about 10 meters apart, and then Lexi was another 30 meters behind them. All three girls were really moving and none faded down the stretch. Lexi managed to find one more gear with about 100 meters left, and this helped her break the 17:00 barrier, finishing in 16:57. This is a per mile pace of 5:39, and also easily set another LJCD course record. Following this awesome performance Lexi was interviewed by RunnerSpace: http://dana-hills-invitational.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=2933&do=videos&video_id=219417
Lexi’s was far from the only impressive Torrey performance of the day. The senior boys, Alex Hill and Nikko Sambold, were the first to race in the division 3 (smaller schools) races. Being aggressive was the command of the day, especially in the first mile, and both boys followed through, passing the marker at 5:19 and 5:30. Nikko is still finding his race fitness and also suffered from a cramp near the end of mile two; he would finish in 19:06. But Alex maintained his solid effort, moving into 10th place during the 2nd mile. He would lose a few places, finishing in 14th, but closed with a 5:48 3rd mile to finish in 17:04. This was a massive p.r. for Alex, improving 50 seconds, and also a breakthrough race for him.
The junior boys were also looking for big races marked by improvement. All three went out quickly in the first mile: Nico Barrera in 5:23, DK Hernandez in 5:43, and Arthur Zhang in 6:39. The 2nd mile proved to be the challenging one, but all three recovered to finish strong. Though the big goals weren’t quite reached, all three posted an improved time. Nico finished in 17:27 (23 sec improvement) and 24th place; DK crossed the line in 18:25 (50 sec) and 62nd; and Arthur finished in 21:22 (1:17 improvement).
The 9th and 10th grade girls raced next in a combined field of 202 racers. So far this season the girls’ races have been marked by improved times and medals earned, and Dana Hills was no different. Ilaria and Jenna went out fast, but not overly so, and came through the mile in 6:23 and 6:34. Sofia’s strategy was similar and she cross the mile at 7:07. Like the boys, all three girls saw a slower 2nd mile as the pain of the race set in, but all three found a way to dig deep and finish with strong 3rd mile. All three also moved up in that 3rd mile, passing other runners. Ilaria finished in 20:03 and 17th place, while Jenna crossed the line in 20:52 and 32nd. Both have earned a medal in each of this year’s races. Sofia finished in 22:59 and 83rd; this is an improvement of nearly 3 minutes and 50 places over last year.
The last two races were those of the 10th and 9th grades boys, and for all the Country Day boys it was their first time at Dana Hills. All of the boys continued with the aggressive first mile, and then some suffered more than others during the 2nd mile. Will Finlay was the top finisher of the group, crossing the line in 19:24 and 50th place. Jackson Hamman also broke the 20:00 barrier, finishing in 19:50 and 91st. Daven Gujral finished in 20:37 and 81st behind a 6:45 3rd mile, while Dante Carnecchia came in at 21:22. Walter Chen finished in 22:03, Andrew Kuhn finished in 23:25, and Luke Lindlan crossed in 24:25. For all three this was the best effort so far this season.
As the Country Day veteran runners and newcomers continue to make progress, we look forward to our first team-scoring meet of the season this Friday at the Coach Downey Classic at Morley Field. Formerly called the Small Schools Invitational, this meet is now named after its founder, Jerry Downey, who coached the St. Augustine team for many years and was one of San Diego’s coaching institutions. He passed away a couple years ago.
Full results for Dana Hills can be found at https://registration.finishedresults.com/meets/673 and also at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=130797#/1408
