The Redondo Union results & stats for the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic invitational meet held in Costa Mesa last Saturday September 18th are now posted in the Meet Results section to the right.
My thanks go out to those that helped take splits and tabulate the order of the runners; Laurie Baker, Leslie Mull and Heather Robinson at the 2-mile mark, and Santana Boswell with me at the one mile mark and the finish line.
Sorry I missed the last seven mile splits in the frosh girls race. With so many teams in red uniforms, and such tightly packed race conditions, I’m amazed we got all of the other 237 individual splits. It’s possible that a few people may be out of order, but I expect those instances to be rare and those split times to still be very close to accurate. I have re-verified all the finishing times and places with the official results put out by the Meet Director. So each person’s finishing time is accurate. Regardless, there are, no doubt, a few errors and typos. If you notice anything, please email me at [email protected], with the corrections. As in the last two meets, there are always a few. I expect to re-post the results with the corrections in a few days.
Thanks also go out to Johnny Kurokawa for advising me on an improved method for formatting times to be able to do the proper math to calculate all the mile splits, averages and other stats shown in the the results tables. Although Johnny’s son Tyler is going out for the Redondo baseball team, he became a fan of the XC program after Coach Bob’s inspiring speech at Freshman Sports Night last June. So there is some proof that the larger community is watching. And apparently correcting my spreadsheet mechanics. Thanks again Johnny.
The races are listed in the order they went off on Saturday afternoon and evening. 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.
Below that is the table showing all the runners in the race in order of finish, then their grade, then their 1-mile time, their 2-mile time, their split for the second mile, their 3-mile time (finish time) and their split for the third mile. The next column is their race-finishing place, followed by the individual’s average mile pace for the entire 3-mile course.
Pictures from the meet 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 Woodbridge XC Classic
For the full official results, showing all the competitors and teams, follow this link to the Woodbridge website http://tinyurl.com/Woodbridge1. The Redondo results are listed in the Gold Division section, and the varsity boys race is listed toward the bottom of the page as Varsity Rated – Boys (#38). There are separate results links for individuals and teams.
For an on-line article and race pictures on our local on-line news service, Redondo Beach Patch, follow this link, http://patch.com/A-8Yp. 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
Redondo Union participated in the prestigious 30th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic last Saturday in Costa Mesa. One of over 200 schools from California and beyond, the Sea Hawks tested their Bay League preparedness against some of the toughest competition around.
In open competition, the Redondo girls varsity took third place, and did it without the aid of their top five runners.
A few days before this invitational meet took place, Head Coach Bob Leetch made the decision to hold out a number of top runners in order to “train-through” this weekend, and be better prepared for the first of the three Bay League XC meets scheduled for this Thursday September 23rd. This strategy allowed three junior varsity girls to move up and gain valuable varsity experience in a major-race setting
And “move up” they did. Sophomores and veteran varsity runners Kayla Ferron took 9th, followed by Anique Villagas in 12th , and Alexis Thibodeau in 22nd. Sophomore Elizabeth del la Torre placed 58th, with seniors Pammie Sherman in 87th and Olivia Loveland in 99th, rounding out the six-girl squad. The ability of a team made up mostly of JV runners and non-scoring varsity runners, to place this high in a XC meet of this caliber, speaks well of the depth of the Redondo girls program.
Their score of 186 points put them behind local Bay League rival West Torrance who won the team title with 91 points, and CIF Division 1 powerhouse Great Oak who scored 126 points.
The boys freshman team was handed its first defeat of the season by Burbank in a close 152 to 159 race. In XC races of this size, seven points can easily be a matter of just a few seconds difference between the teams’ 4th or 5th runners. This particular race was comprised of 324 individuals on 26 teams. Redondo’s Will Tait placed 15th in 17:10, followed by Tomohiro Yamaya in 22nd and Takahiro Yamaya in 30th.
Normally part of the scoring team, Tanner Childs was forced to drop out of the race shortly after the first mile due to a knee injury. Ryan Keliher, a second valued Sea Hawk injured during the race, was determined to go the distance. Reduced to walking the last few hundred yards, he managed to limp across the finish line.
Other freshmen boys showed great improvement in their times from the Great Cow Run last week. Although the differing terrain and other factors make comparing times in cross country a poor indicator of improvement, the five runners who lowered their times by 40 seconds or more are obviously getting faster. An excellent example is Ahmad Kabbani’s 90 second improvement which also moved his ranking up from 13th to 5th-man. Ahmad is now a scoring member of the team.
South Bay neighbors, and Bay League rivals West Torrance placed 12th in frosh team competition with 356 points, and Mira Costa landed in 24th with 538 points. 24th?
The Redondo boys varsity team, minus star front-man Tyler Caracoza, ran in the Rated Varsity Boys race. Unlike the other races, the Rated races combine runners from all CIF divisions and give the top rated teams an opportunity to compete against schools they normally would never face.
Placing 22nd, even without Tyler, was surely not the performance they were expecting. However, this is a young team that includes six runners with no prior year varsity experience. In pursuit of that valuable commodity, these young men have been fearlessly preparing themselves in the company of some of the best teams in California. That preparation will be put to the test this season at each of the three up-coming Bay League XC meets. Keep in mind that the Bay League is widely regarded as one of the toughest XC leagues in the state, consistently producing multiple top 10 CIF and State Championship teams each year. Boys and girls.
Without Tyler in the mix, everyone received a free boost up one spot in the rankings. Although none of the varsity ran faster times this week, Garrett Klatte was only 5 seconds off with his 16:05, and moved up three slots to second-man position in this race.
Some of the most encouraging stats from this week are the spreads between the top runners in some of the races. For example, the 27 second spread between the first and fifth runners on the boys sophomore team is additionally impressive when you notice that the top three came in within two seconds of each other. Art Fontana’s final kick moved him up several places, and put him between Joseph Levine and RJ Mushaney. Then, consider that the two-girl sophomore team of Ruth Berry and Katie Parkinson finished only two seconds apart, and our three-man senior boys team finished only seven seconds apart.
With the drafting of the top JV and sophomore girls into the varsity race this week, those teams ran short handed, without the 5-person minimum to field a scoring team. The senior boys were also short with their 3-man team, after the JVs were split into separate junior and senior teams. At least the juniors still had seven runners, lead by Andrew Hazeltine’s credible 17:06 performance, the 7th fastest Redondo time of the day.
Next up, Bay League Meet #1 on Thursday September 23rd at 2:45 pm, hosted by West, held at Entradero Park, a.k.a., the gopher hole-dog run-flood control ditch-little league-ankle turn alley. Yes it’s in Torrance, but that’s OK, they take American money there. See you all on Thursday!
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Doug Boswell ~ XC Info Director ~ [email protected]
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