Results: Bay League #1: Entradero Park

The Redondo Union results & stats for the Bay League #1 Cross Country Meet, hosted by West, in Torrance’s Entradero Park last Thursday afternoon September 23rd, 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; Mark Childs, Laura Emdee, Katrina Bird, Heidi Heflin, and even Pat Hebert (you’ve seen him as the RUHS track & XC alum working our meets as the starter) all at the 2-mile mark, and Brian Linquest with me at the one mile mark and the finish line. We were fortunate enough to have a number of Sea Hawk runners assisting us in identifying their teammates as they went by so I could later match them up with the list of times taken at each mile mark.

With the quantity of help that responded to my last minutes call for assistance, we were able to get all three splits on every runner. As usual, I have also re-verified every finishing time and place with the official results put out by the Meet Director to make sure everything is as accurate as possible. 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 three meets, there are always a few. I expect to re-post the results with the corrections in a few days.

The races are listed in the order they went off on Thursday afternoon. 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. The split times were taken where the course was marked at one and two miles. If accurate, the third mile would actually be 1.1 miles long. But with all the hills, these splits are going to look slow compared to other courses anyway. 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 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 3.1-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 Bay League #1 meet.

For the full official results posted on ESPN Rise, click here http://tinyurl.com/RiseXC2 and scroll down to the Results section and click on the link that says, RESULTS FILE (in .pdf format). You will also see a link to the race photo album, courtesy of Kirsten Leetch, just below it.

For an on-line article about the varsity girls race and for race pictures from most of the 6 races on our local on-line news service, Redondo Beach Patch, follow this link, http://patch.com/A-Bw9. I encourage you to visit this site, and especially this article, to boost the ratings of our XC team’s stories and announcements.

VARSITY RACE SUMMARIES

The first of three Bay League Cross Country meets took place Thursday Sept. 23rd at Entradero Park in Torrance. The rugged terrain, in what amounts to a flood control basin moonlighting as a park with a few baseball fields, offers a classic old-style XC course with steep hills, rutted dirt roads, churned-up loose dirt trails and plenty of rocks and gopher holes to keep it interesting. No golf course or other manicured soft grass surface here. We’re talking true harrier cross country.

The most highly anticipated event of the day was the varsity girls race, featuring our own 9th place nationally ranked team as the one to beat. Also toeing the line was Mira Costa’s 21st place nationally ranked team, Palos Verdes’ 1st ranked CIF D3 team, West’s 10th place ranked CIF D3 team, and some girls from Peninsula High School. This race in particular drew quite a crowd of XC enthusiasts not normally in attendance at Bay League meets. Everyone who is anyone in the XC community who could get time off from work for an emergency dentist appointment, was there.

From the gun, it was a race to the front for the Redondo girls team. And it was the entire team of seven that took off and set the pace. Within half a mile, they had only strung out with a few seconds between them, accompanied by two Mira Costa runners, Savanna Pio and Kelli Sugimoto, hovering just behind the leaders, Rachel, Lyndsey and Cara. Palos Verdes’ Erica Capellino strode comfortably alongside the back of this fast moving lead pack with Kayla and Anique.

By the mile mark it was Pio at the front of the pack due to a momentary lapse of strategy, and it was now down to just her and Redondo’s top five. Not three seconds separated them. Over the next mile of this 5K course, Rachel and Cara stayed up front, and Pio returned to her customary position, keeping close contact. Strung out just seconds behind them were Laura and then Kelly. Kayla was now Redondo’s 5th girl, in 6th place, as Lyndsey had dropped back some 30 seconds from the leaders.

With a half mile to go, and coming down off the final climb up the big-hill on the south side of the course, Rachel had a 15-yard lead on Pio and Cara. She held that distance all the way around the trail as it curved north over a rise, then west and downhill toward the final stretch. Meanwhile, Pio slowly powered away from Cara, breaking contact and inching up on Rachel. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she made a noticeable increased in speed coming down the last rocky stretch of trail before it turns onto an old asphalt service road. She eliminated Rachel’s lead and eased by her, showing no sign of slowing down. Pio’s finishing kick was not so much a high speed sprint as it was a shifting of gears to a faster tempo as was evident in the way she cruised through the last 80 yards to a confident and decisive win.

The excitement that came next was all Redondo, as the girls streamed through the finish chute taking the next 5 places. Despite having victory snatched away from her in the final stretch, Rachel finished strong, followed by Cara, then Laura, Kelly and Kayla. With the 7th place finish of PV’s Capellino, it was now a string of Costa runners coming through, rounding out their top 5 scorers. Lead by 8th place finisher Sugimoto were Aryn Foland, Vivien Cherrette, and Jenna Tong taking 9th through 11th place. Except for Capellino, this Bay League Meet was a virtual Redondo-Costa dual meet. But in whatever context you choose to consider this race, Redondo clearly annihilated Mira Costa.

Needless to say, Redondo took the team title with a low score of 20 points. Mira Costa was second with 40, West scored 90, Palos Verdes had 95 and Peninsula wound up 5th with 106 points.

In the varsity boys race, we had another chance to see why XC teams fear the Sea Hawks. Just like our girls, our boys go out hard and push the pace. Sure, they could sit-and-kick like almost everyone else does, but when carpe diem is your motto, you seize the day, and the lead, the pace, and control of the race. If another team is going to get their five across the finish line before we get ours across, they are going to have to earn that the hard way. By going head-to-head with a group of guys that aren’t afraid to hurt. If you beat us, you are going to have to hurt to do it.

So in classic Redondo fashion, Tyler, Evan and Dezhan bolted to the front and set the early pace. It was a crowded circuit around the baseball diamonds and the field consisted of one large pack. No one was ready to challenge our boys this early, so as the course changed to up-hill and a narrow trail, the field squeezed down to fill what little space there was to accommodate it, with our runners now surging ahead of it all. On the downhill, Nick opened up and flew down the side of the trail passing half a dozen competitors and moved up into position alongside, and then from the momentum of his sprint, ahead of his teammates. Making a hairpin turn at the bottom of the hill to start the ascent of the next hill, our lead pack of four pulled the league’s top runners away from the main body of the race and began to break contact with it.

Cresting the hill they crossed the mile mark with Evan well in the lead and Tyler a full second behind him. A couple seconds back Mira Costa’s Adam Perez lead a tight pack of five including Michael Nakahara of West, our own Dezhan, and Justin Unno and Daniel Rieger, both of Palos Verdes. Nick was right behind them.

Over the next mile Evan and Tyler continued to hold the lead, coming through the two-mile mark a step apart. Charging up hill after hill, they were keeping the pace fast, and no one challenged them, perhaps for fear that if the pace increased; it might just stay there. No, these other Bay Leaguers were working hard enough as it was.

At 2 1/2 miles, Tyler had moved to the front with Perez and Unno side-by-side just behind him and in front of Evan, who had Rieger and then Lavertu following closely. This was now the lead pack of 6, with the chase pack of ten dropping away from them. And this six-man race was about to go to 5. Over the next half-mile, the runners began to slowly string out. Peninsula’s Lavertu was the first to go down. Off the last climb on that south-side big-hill, you could almost feel the burning of lactic acid buildup in the legs, the hollow-gut sensation as core muscles begin to fail, the panic in the lungs as the body vainly tries to adapt to oxygen debt. They are all feeling it, but everyone thinks it’s just them. The line strings out a little more going over the last rise. There are no more hills, but even the downhill slope feels like one.

PV’s Unno has made his move.

Tyler and Costa’s Perez respond, but Unno is so fast. He pulls away and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. What could be done has already been done, and now it’s Tyler’s turn to teach Perez what finishing speed looks like. They cross the finish line, Tyler easily ahead of Perez, but all that distance is just one second. Three seconds behind it’s Evan coming around the bend in a full-tilt sprint inching up on PV’s Rieger, but there’s just not enough room left in 3.1 miles to get by him. They finish with the same time.

Patrick, who’d been in 20th place at the first mile, and had been steadily moving up through the field over the final mile, was now in 10th. In those last 50 meters he was just too far behind West’s Brandon Vientos to pick up one more place, and far enough ahead of PV’s Alee Dunton not to loose one. Garrett, 19 seconds back, strides through the finish unchallenged. 23 seconds later Nick, as 5th-man closes out the score with 26th place, soon to be followed in by Alex, who had been running a remarkably stead pace throughout, and was moving up in the later stages of the race. Dezhan, who today learned, in a most painful way, that a hill-course will suck the life out of you faster and more assuredly than a chemistry teacher with a speech impediment, still managed enough speed and will power to hold off the fast closing Costa runner, Zac Adler.

Palos Verdes, scoring 41 points won the team title. Redondo Union was 2nd with 62, Peninsula was 3rd with 65, West was 4th with 75, and Mira Costa took 5th with 101.

More race summaries will soon be added to this post. Check back tomorrow and read about the JV girls and the Frosh boys team wins, and a new division for novice runners.

Doug Boswell ~ XC Info Director ~ [email protected]

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