Results: Nike Pre-Nationals

The Redondo Union results & stats for the Nike Pre-Nationals invite in Portland, OR, on Saturday September 25th, are now posted in the Meet Results section to the right.

About the Results Table
There are only 3 races listed because only 3 teams traveled to Oregon for this event. For each race there is a general information bar at the top showing the race name, the team’s place and points scored, the team’s combined time, the team’s average time, and the spread between the first and fifth runners. These team stats are derived from the top five finishers, as they represent the scoring members of the team. Note that this a 5,000 meter (5K) course, so the distance is actually 3.1 miles, meaning that the Average Mile stat is the finish time divided by 3.1, so the average is “per mile”, and not just 1/3 of the race time.

Below that is the table showing all the runners in the race in order of finish, then their grade, then if they were available, their 1-mile time, and then their 3-mile time (finish time). Since there was only a mile split for the varsity girls race, the column where a split for the third mile is usually found now shows a split for the combined second and third miles as one two-mile split. The next column is their race-finishing place, followed by the individual’s average mile pace for the entire 3.1-mile course.

Pictures
Pictures from the meet, once they are posted, can also be found on the Booster Club website, in the Meet Photos section by following this link http://new.runruhs.com/meet-photos/ and clicking on the links to the pictures for the Nike Pre-Natioanals meet.

Official Results
For the full official results posted on ESPN Rise, click here http://tinyurl.com/RiseXC4 and scroll down to the Results section.

Redondo Beach Patch
For this on-line article about the varsity girls race and for race pictures on our local on-line news service, Redondo Beach Patch, follow this link, http://patch.com/A-Cgj. I encourage you to visit this site, and especially this article, to boost the ratings of our XC team’s stories and announcements.

MEET SUMMARY

The Redondo Union varsity girls took their show on the road this weekend at the Nike Pre-Nationals in Portland, Oregon, and gave some of the best teams in the northwest and across the country a demonstration of how a team runs together and wins together. In their usual fashion, they stole the show putting their five scoring runners in the top 14 places, with their 6th taking 17th just for good measure.

The XC course at Portland Meadows is the same one that will feature Nike’s national cross country championships in December. The course, built on the infield of a horseracing track, which is an undulating 9-hole golf course, has several man-made obstacles along the way, including rows of hay bales for the runners to jump over. One of the signature features is called the whoop-de-doos; a series of short, steep, closely spaced hills, almost like large mounds, all exactly the same, placed in a row along one part of the course. Since the runners make two circuits of a 2,000-meter loop and one of a 1,000-meter loop on this 5K course, they have to survive the whoop-de-doos twice.

The now familiar Redondo tactic of running in a group really accents the team-sport nature of XC. Even in a field loaded with the fast runners of these top teams, these girls ran together not only through the one mile mark, which split at 5:47, but even coming off the second flight of whoop-de-doos at about 2 1/4 miles, Redondo’s top 6 ran as one. They only began to string out in the later stages of the race as individual strengths, and the effects of recent racing and travel had their differing effects on each girl. The temperature, in the 80s, didn’t help much.

But these fiercely competitive runners handled the course, the weather and the competition just like they always do, running to win. Sophomore Kayla Ferron crossed the finish line as the 1st of the Sea Hawks and 5th overall. A fast closing Lyndsey Mull finished right on her shoulder, not a half second back in 6th. Ten seconds later, Laura O’Neill lead the rest of her teammates through in 10th, with Rachel Bush in 13th, Kelly Ryan in 14th, Cara Ulizio in 17th, and Anique Villegas finished 54th, with almost a hundred runners still behind her. There was only a 22 second spread between the 1st and 5th runners.

This was Kayla’s first time as the Sea Hawk’s top runner, all the more impressive when it is considered that this was her third major race in eight days.

The race for the team title in this, the girls championship event of the day, included many schools from the Pacific Northwest and other western states plus British Columbia, but also as far away as Texas and South Carolina. However, when the dust settled it was California schools that took top honors.

Redondo Union’s winning low score of 43 points is almost unheard of at invitationals of this caliber. That’s more like a very good league meet score. But it’s becoming common where these girls race, and explains why they’ve recently been ranked 9th in the country. Second place with 147 points went to Trabuco Hills in Mission Viejo, ranked 2nd in California for CIF D1 schools, and third with 194 points went to Warren in Downey. Individual winner Molly Grabill hails from Rancho Bernardo, in Poway, northern San Diego County, and has recently been ranked second in the country as an individual.

In other races Saturday, the varsity boys, competing in the highest rated and the championship race of the day, finished 15th. Their top runners finishing tightly grouped with Evan Malone-White in 61st, Dezhan Bland 62nd, and Tyler Caracoza 63rd, with only 1.05 seconds between them. The entire 5-man scoring team only had a 35 second spread.

The junior varsity girls, also coming off a Bay League meet win two days prior, moved up to race in Varsity Division 1. Although everyone performed well, Alexis Thibodeau came in 29th and Elizabeth del la Torre finished 54th, the team was only able to manage 19th place. Not bad for a JV team running against the best girls other schools had to offer. But then these JV girls would be varsity on most other teams.

Doug Boswell ~ XC Info Director

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