Girls Recap!

By Mike Kennedy
     (FRESNO) -- Saugus and Carondelet (Concord), the two top teams in the State, took difference approaches to the Clovis Invitational but at the but at the end of the day little had changed as no one stepped up to offer a serious challenge. Saugus won the Division I race in 92:35  and Carondelet took the Sweepstakes race with a 92:38. Crescenta Valley (La Crescenta) was nearly one minute back with the third fastest time of the day at 93:29. Just how good are those team times? At last years State meet not one had a team under 93 minutes.  I should be noted that the weather was ideal on Saturday with mostly clear skies and temperatures in the mid 60’s.
         Coach Rene Paragas of Saugus, the No. 1 team in Division I and the third ranked team in the nation according to the Harrier, did not want a tough race so he bypassed the Sweepstakes race and entered Division I, which the Centurions won easily with just 39 points. “I didn’t think that was what we needed (a tough race),” said Paragas. “We have just been training through our meets. Last year  we went to Jim Danner  in Portland and raced very hard a number of times. We might have gotten a little too tired toward the end of the season.”  This year, after Woodbridge, the Centurions, have been moving their runners around, which is exactly what they did at Clovis.  In addition to the Division I win, they also took the frosh soph race with freshman Kaylin Mahoney, who usually runs No. 2 on the varsity, winning easily in 18:41. That time would have made her No. 5 on the varsity. They also won the JV race going 1-2. When you combine Saugus’ top five runners their three-second margin over Carondelet grows to  35 seconds and that does not include sophomore Amber Murakami who sat out the meet with the flu.
      Last year Coach Mary Ann Grubb’s Carondelet team was under the radar screen for much of the season, choosing not to compete at Stanford, Clovis and the Mt. San Antonio Relays before winning the State Division II championships. This year the Cougars, ranked No. 1 in Division II and No. 9 in the nation, have won the multi-state Jim Danner Nike Pre-Nationals in Portland, the Stanford Invitational Sweepstakes race last week and entered the Clovis with increased confidence—an opinion that was certainly reinforced by the results. The Cougars won the Sweepstakes race with four runners in the top 16 and just 57 points. Crescenta Valley was second with 97 points. When asked way Carondelet didn’t entered the larger invitational’s, Grubb said, “Last year I was just not real sure what we had. After a great summer of hard training and showing improvement as a team I though were ready.”
      Individually, the most interesting question of the meet was, where’s Jordan Hasay?. The answer, of course, was, in Arroyo Grande, where the two-time State Division V champion was getting ready for a long season. Hasay, who competes for Mission Prep in San Luis Obispo, had run just one race—winning the Morro Bay Invitational in early September.  “With plans to run in the Olympic Trials and the World Junior championships in Poland this coming summer, we didn’t want to race too often this early in the season, Coach Mando Siqueiros said. As it turned out Hasay dominated the Sweepstakes race with splits of 5:27 and 11:13 before winning easily in 17:23 for the fastest time of the day.

Here is a look at the Varsity Races

Sweepstakes
       Carondelet was the favorite going in and did not disappoint with a 40-point win over  Crescenta Valley and Foothill (Santa Ana). The Cougars were led by fast improving sophomore Nicole  Hood, who was third in 17:37, sophomore Heathery Cerney, seventh at 18:28 and junior Kellie Houser, tenth at 18:37. Crescenta Valley’s Claire Collison continued her consistent fall running with a second place finish in 17:33 just 10 second being Hasay. Foothill was hindered by the absence of No. 2 runner junior Allison Gushue. Although winning, the Hasay camp had been hoping for a faster time but Coach Siqueiros said, “sometimes even when you training has been going well, that doesn’t always show up in the results.” Hasay was a comfortable leader passing the mile at 5:27 and the two mile at 11:13. Hood led the second group at two miles that included Claire Collison of Crescenta Valley, Laurynne Chetelat of Davis, Rachel Lange of Crescenta Valley and Mira Costa runners Kevyn Murphy and Shadeh Tabatabai. 

Division I
      Despite splinting its team up Saugus was a heavy favorite and they Centurions did not disappoint with a 63 point win over Marina (Huntington Beach) and San Clemente. Katie Dunn led Saugus with a third place in finish in 17:52.  Also in the top 10 for Saugus was Brianna Jauregui in fifth at 18:14, Anne Randall at in seventh 18:24 and Nina Moore in tenth at 18:49. Freshman Lyndsie Etherton of Bullard (Fresno) was the leader at the mile in 5:30. By two miles, passed in 11:30, Dunn, Meaghan Marvin of Clovis and Alex Dunne of San Clemente made up the top group followed by Etherton. The top three continued to run as a group before Dunne and Marvin battled over the final 100 meters with Dunne prevailing, 17:48 to 17:49. Second place Marina, with four freshman in its top four, was led by Catherine Durant’s eighth place finish in 18:43.         

Division II

     Mater Dei (Santa Ana), with just two runners in the top twenty but five in the top 30, edged Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills), 97 to 100 in the team race. Arroyo Grande was third with 139. Hayley Scott of Oak Ridge had a small lead at the mile, passed in 5:30, over Stephanie Felix of La Mirada and Jana Hayashi of Arroyo Grande. By two miles, passed in 11:47, it was a two person race between Felix and Krista Drechsler of Santa Barbara. The two battled over the final mile with at least two lead changes before Felix prevailed on the  sprint to the finish, 18:16 to 18:18. Hayashi was third in 18:32.  “My finish has always been a problem but I moved with 400 remaining and was able to pull away,” Felix said.

Division III

    Oak Park dominated the race with three runners in the top six and five in the top 13 to score just 37 points and record a team time of 95:38 for the fifth best effort of the day. The Eagles were led by Courtney Lightfoot, third at 18:21, Melissa Skiba, fourth at 18:39 and Marissa Diehl, sixth at 19:11.  Junior Jessica Nunez of South Hills (West Covina) led from the start with splits of 5:35 and 11:38 before pulling away from Diana George (Livermore), 18:08 to 18:18. “I just ran for the win,” said Nunez, who ran 5:11 and 10:51.43 on the track last year. “I really wanted to run in the Sweepstakes. I was hoping for a faster time.” The Huskies finished second with 63 points and Las Lomas (Walnut Creek) was third at 122.

Division IV

    Sisters Breean and Amber Collier of Woodcrest Christian, were third and sixth, respectively, in 19:02 and 19:10, as the Royals, placed four runners in the top 25, to defeat St. Mary (Berkeley), 101 to 109. St. Mary’s had four runners in the top 15, led by Taylor Lawson, seventh in 19:11 but saw their fifth runner finish just 76th. La Reina (Thousand Oaks) was third at 118. Ashley Phillips of Marlborough (Los Angeles) had the lead at a mile in 5:40 but was joined by Catherine Hasbrouck of Nordhoff (Ojai) at the two miles, passed in 11:56. Hasbrouck then pulled away for the win, 18:38 to 18:49. “I wanted to get out fast and be in the top five,`` said Hasbrouck.    

            
    

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