Results: Bay League #2 – Polliwog Park

The Redondo Union results & stats for the second of the three seasonal Bay League meets, held Thursday October 14th, are now posted in the Meet Results section on the right. Or, to go straight to the results sheet, click here http://tinyurl.com/BayLg-2.

Once again I cannot express my appreciation enough for all those that have been assisting me in the Results & Stats Project. This week Brian Lindquist, Pat Hebert and a few other parents like Sienna and Bella’s mom, helped with taking times and making up the lists of runners as they went by the mile and 2-mile marks, and then again at the finish chute. We had great support from the XC runners themselves, helping us identify their teammates so we could match them up with the times. Thanks for pitching in were you could Vera, Danielle, Nour, Gunner, Janie, Abbey, Sahab, Bridget, and all the rest. I know I left a few people out, but just know that without you, we couldn’t put these times and splits together for the meet’s 92 Redondo runners.

You can read a very similar, but somewhat sanitized version of the meet summary in the story posted on Redondo Beach Patch here http://patch.com/A-Ltq. It includes a number of pictures not on the runruhs.com site just yet, as well as many by Laurie Baker and Craig Levine, including some from Patch photographer Ed Pilolla.

Many more pictures from the meet can be found on the Booster Club website in the Meet Photos section by clicking here http://new.runruhs.com/meet-photos/ and following the links to the pictures for the Bay League #2 meet.

For the full official results and more pictures posted on ESPN Rise, click here http://tinyurl.com/RiseXC6, then scroll down and click on the link to the results.

Meet Summary

Redondo Varsity Girls now 2 for 2 in Bay League Competition

Palos Verdes narrowly avoids an upset to post 2nd win. Redondo frosh boys also win 2nd league meet.

The second of the three seasonal Bay League cross country meets played out in predictable fashion, in that little was predictable.  The Redondo Girls won the much-anticipated Sea Hawk v Mustang rematch by an impressive point margin, but not with the impressive individual performances everyone expected. The poorly respected strategy of putting varsity runners in junior varsity races almost cost Palos Verdes their varsity boys win, and gained them nothing the JV races. Lightly regarded West Torrance almost pulled of the upset of the year in the varsity boys race by running smart and hanging tough – who could have guessed? Mira Costa’s Aryn Foland and Redondo’s Dezhan Bland had individual efforts that dwarfed their performances in the first Bay League meet.

The varsity girls race started off in a familiar enough fashion with the Redondo team moving to the front and everyone else letting them set the pace. Soon it was the same lead pack as the first Bay League meet three weeks ago, but with the addition of Mira Costa’s Aryn Foland, making it a group of six from Redondo, two from Costa and one from PV.

For a few hundred yards around the mile mark, this lead pack had to squeeze down to the narrow width of a sidewalk. Here the girls were running shoulder-to-shoulder practically on top of each other. No one was giving up position for comfort or safety. The mile split was 5:36 as the leaders came through, and by 5:41 they were gone. The chase pack seemed well behind but came through only six seconds back, more runners from Mira Costa, then Redondo’s Anique Villagas and West’s Jackie Rodriguez. A few seconds later the rest of the field streamed through.

About halfway into the next mile, Mira Costa’s Savanna Pio and Foland moved into the lead position, began to push the pace, and the pack started to stretch out. By the two-mile mark, Pio was in control of the race, with Foland following a second behind. Redondo runners Rachel Bush and Laura O’Neill had dropped back, but still seemed focused on maintaining contact. Their teammates Cara Ulizio and Kelly Ryan, followed by Lyndsey Mull, were now the only group running close enough together to resemble a pack, but even they were stringing out.

Still, five red Redondo uniforms occupied all the territory between the two Costa leaders, and their teammates Kelli Sugimoto and Vivian Cherrette, who were only a little ahead of Redondo’s Kayla Ferron, PV’s Erica Capellino, West’s Rodriguez and Redondo’s Villagas. Redondo was looking safe, but Costa was looking tough.

Coming down off the last hill, Pio was all alone. She moved onto the grass for the final circuit around the field with a 50-meter lead over Foland, with Bush another 50 meters back. The Costa girls finished one, two, in 17:18 and 17:29, with Foland showing a remarkable 48 second reduction in her gap behind Pio since the last race.

Bush took 3rd in 17:38, and the rest of the Redondo scoring team streamed through right behind her. O’Neill 4th in 17:44, Ulizio 5th in 17:48, Ryan 6th in 17:50 and Mull 7th in 17:53.

PV’s Capellino was 9th in 18:09, putting herself between Costa’s Sugimoto in 8th with an 18:01, and Cherrete’s 10th in 18:11, as the next group through the finish chute.

Once again, this five-team league meet turned into a Costa-Redondo dual meet. Despite the ever-improving West girls running well today, and even if PV hadn’t dropped Rebecca Mehra, their second best runner, down into the JV girls race, these two well regarded teams (both ranked in the top 8 for D2 in CA) were not a factor in the scoring. And as well as Mira Costa milked their home course advantage, even picking off the two top spots couldn’t change the outcome when Redondo can still put five runners in the top seven places only 15 seconds apart.

Redondo’s first place team score was 25 points, Mira Costa’s 2nd was 37, West was 3rd with 78, Palos Verdes was 4th with 92, and Peninsula was 5th with 133.

This time out, the varsity boys race served up the most excitement of the day. Still as unpredictable, in the way it played out as well as it’s outcome, as the girls race, it also was something of a cliff-hanger at the end as everyone waited for the official score to determine the winner of a race few expected to be so close.

But when the numbers were totaled, it was still Palos Verdes on top, as predicted pre-race, but by only one point. And the team that almost took it all away from them wasn’t the betting man’s choice, Redondo; it was the 4th place team from three weeks ago, West. While waiting for those scores, the PV coaches must have been biting their finger nails and kicking themselves for putting last year’s number one runner down in the JV boys race. Sure Jonah Diaz cruised through in first place, but his 15:50 time would have dropped their varsity score 13 points, making West’s incredible improvement moot. Expect a humbler, more conservative PV at the final Bay League meet on Nov. 4th.

The race itself was a barnburner. The first mile was the now typical large group pack. This time there were six Redondo runners, three from PV, two from West, plus Reo Lantertu of Peninsula. Rio was a distant 6th place three weeks ago, but during the second mile he surged into the lead and kept on going. PV’s Justin Unno stayed on his shoulder, but the rest were stringing out fast. Redondo’s Tyler Caracoza, Mira Costa’s Adam Perez, West’s Brandon Vientos, and PV teammates Daniel Riegen and Alec Duntan were running single file as the second group.

A little more than a half mile later that second group had lost contact with Lantertu and Unno, and soon Unno was pulling away from Lantertu. Meanwhile, Redondo’s Dezhan Bland, after loosing ground in mile-two, was now moving up and passing others who were feeling the pace. Four West runners were forming their own pack and trying to keep contact with Caracoza, whose shoulder Perez seemed content to sit on. Other Redondo runners were also feeling the fast early pace. Nick Harold was fading. Evan Malone-White was disconnected from the group in front of him. Patrick Borgerding had also lost contact.

Nearing the finish, Unno ran onto the grass field, with Lantertu some 40 meters back, and cruised around its perimeter to cross the finish line in first place, clocking 15:11, an even more decisive individual win than in the previous Bay League meet. An obviously spent Lantertu arrived 2nd in 15:19.

As West’s Vientos rounded the field, Redondo’s Bland was powering away from PV’s Riegen and Duntan, and gaining on him. But he was far enough ahead to easily hold on to 4th in 15:28. Bland took 5th in 15:31, just ahead of Reigen’s 6th in 15:32 and Duntan’s 7th in 15:33. Carcoza made it in at 7th in 15:35, Ryland Dreibelbis of PV took 8th in 15:38, West’s Drew Griffie was 9th in 15:39, with Costa’s Perez well back in 10th with a 15:42.

As previously described, PV eked out a one point team win with 47 points to West’s 2nd with 48, then it was Redondo in 3rd with 65, Peninsula in 4th with 79 and Mira Costa 5th with 98 points.

In other races:

  • Junior Varsity Girls: Mira Costa – 35, Redondo – 37, Palos Verdes – 68, West – 95, Peninsula – 129
  • Junior Varsity Boys: Peninsula – 31, West – 39, Palos Verdes – 64, Mira Costa – 86, Redondo – 150
  • Frosh Girls: West – 22, Mira Costa – 50, Redondo – 89, Palos Verdes – 98, Peninsula – 108
  • Frosh Boys: Redondo – 38, Palos Verdes – 42, Peninsula – 65, West – 75, Mira Costa – 154

Preview for what’s up next:

Every year the world goes to war. It takes place on or about the third week of October, in the small San Gabriel Valley town of Walnut under the name, MT SAC Cross Country Invitational. If you have never been to this meet, you have not fully experienced the thrill of big-time cross country. Some may even go so far as to say your life is not complete. As the largest XC competition in the world, it is a multi-day spectacle of gigantic proportions. An athletic event with the feel of a medieval jousting tournament, the grittiness of Roman gladiatorial combat, and the adrenaline of the Pamplona Running of the Bulls. Thousands of runners from all over the western United States arrive to do battle on the untamed hills of Walnut. They race through the flatlands of the Valley Loop, feel the pain of the famous hills; The Switchbacks, Poop-out Hill, and Reservoir, and then struggle up the incline of the Runway, rounding the final bend to sprint to the finish through The Gauntlet. Redondo Union’s Sea Hawks will be putting on their colors and taking on the best of the best. Come out and be part of the spectacle. Wear red. Be loud. Go Sea Hawks!

Look for the MT SAC announcement preview coming this Monday on Redondo Beach Patch http://redondobeach.patch.com/. Pictures from last year’s races will be included.

~ Doug Boswell ~ XC Info Director ~ [email protected]

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