Cross Country: Wolfpack Invitational
The LJCD cross country teams began their racing season Friday at the Wolfpack Invitational. This meet, held at West Hills H.S., is run by grade level and over shorter distances since it is an early-season meet. The girls and freshmen boys covered 1.5 miles over mostly flat, dusty trails, while the rest of the boys tackled 2.1 miles. It was HOT — 104 degrees when we arrived -- with the intensity of the sun only occasionally lessened by light cloud cover. While these conditions raised concerns, the LJCDS runners handled them very well, hydrating all week long and on race day. These were not conditions under which fast times or major improvement were expected, but despite the heat the Torrey runners displayed solid effort and determination, and there were some terrific finishes.
Freshman Jenna Hernandez kicked things off for us, and sped to a finishing time of 11:01. This earned her 19th place and a medal (given to the top 20 in each race) in her first-ever XC race.
The freshman boys were next and this was our largest group of racers. Tian Zhau let adrenaline get the better of him and went out very fast. He suffered for it in the 2nd half of the race, but still was our top finisher in 10:25 and 55th place, out of a field of 143 racers. Will Finlay wasn’t far behind in 10:46 and 73rd. Daven Gujral was next, finishing in 11:26 and 98th place. Walter Chen was next, with Andrew Kuhn in a speedy finish close behind; 11:41 and 11:43 respectively. Our final freshman finisher was Luke Lindlan in 13:26. This was a solid first race for the boys, and they’re going see a ton of improvement this season.
The sophomore trio of Ilaria Comfort, Sofia Besharati, and Sydney Strawn were next to race. The girls were a bundle of nerves last year when this was their first race, and 2017 was only slightly better. The difference is that the nerves quickly went away as soon as the race began. This was especially true for Sofia, who was our only returning runner to improve on her time from last year — by 35 seconds. She finished in 11:41 and 33rd place. Sydney was not far behind her, finishing in 12:12 and 42nd. Ilaria basically matched last year’s time with her 10:52 finish, but the effort needed to do this in such heat was much greater, confirming what we knew: that Ilaria is a much stronger runner this year. She earned the team’s other medal, finishing 19th. We only had four of our six girls race today, so having half of them earn medals was great.
This was the first time competing at the Wolfpack for both our sophomore boys, Dante Carnecchia and Jackson Hamman. Dante was injured last year, and it’s Jackson’s first year on the team. Jackson finished in 15:36 and 56th place (out of a field of 127), while Dante came across the line in 16:22 and 73rd.
The remaining boys, juniors Nico Barrera and Dakota Hernandez, and senior Alex Hill, are all returning varsity runners looking to see improvement individually and for the team. Even though temps had dropped to the 90’s by the time of their races, being in the heat all afternoon was draining and would mean more work for a slower result. So this was not the day for faster times compared to last year. Nico went out hard in the first mile and struggled in the second, while Dakota was more conservative but had a similar second half of the race. They finished in 13:30 and 14:27 respectively, 32nd and 62nd in a big field of 131 racers. Alex had one of the most exciting finishes of the day, besting a Santana runner in the final 50 meters, and he also finished with the fastest Torrey time of the day, 12:58. This was good for 24th.
All in all, this was a solid start to our racing season. The Torreys showed composure and grit in the face of tough running conditions, many got their first XC race under the belt, and we had several nice results. Our next race is on Saturday at the Bronco Invitational, at Kit Carson Park.
Full results are at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=130925#/1408
