The Redondo Union results & stats for the Warren Stauffer Invite Saturday October 2nd, are now posted in the Meet Results section of the Booster Club website. To to go straight to the results sheet, click here http://tinyurl.com/WStauffer.
You can read a very similar version of the meet summary in the story posted on Redondo Beach Patch here http://patch.com/A-Fxt. It includes a number of pictures not on the runruhs.com site just yet, as well as many by Laurie Baker, and even one from Coach Bob. BTW, the editor at RB Patch told me that the article on the Nike Pre-Nationals was massively popular, with a large number of people sharing it on Facebook. Everybody likes a winner.
Many more pictures from the meet can be found here on the Booster Club website, in the Meet Photos section, just follow the links to the pictures for the Warren Stauffer meet.
For the full official meet results posted on ESPN Rise, click here http://tinyurl.com/RiseXC5.
New updated and corrected versions of the results & stats sheets have now been posted for the Nike Pre-Nationals http://tinyurl.com/RUHS-NikePre, and for the South Bay Cup http://tinyurl.com/RUHS-SoBayC.
Meet Summary
To say that the Redondo girls varsity cross country team is phenomenal, is perhaps to make an understatement. As of this week they are now ranked 1st in California and 4th nationally. In varsity competition, they have become known for running in a pack that just runs away from all other teams, wins by a huge margin, and sets course records. But even when you separate out the individuals and run them in different races, they still dominate, and the similarity of their times show that they are in effect, still running in a pack, and still winning big, as with their Warren Stauffer Invite 5-person cumulative time. They broke the girls team course record by an unbelievable 3:26. Thirty seconds would be big. Three plus minutes is beyond phenomenal.
At Saturday’s Warren Stauffer Invitational, the girls varsity was split into three grade-level races. In the Senior Girls race, Kelly Ryan and Laura O’Neill broke from the rest of the field in the first couple hundred meters and came through the mile side-by side at 5:42. By the two-mile mark they seemed to be in their own race, clocking a split of 11:44, still together. Over the final mile Kelly was able to pull away from Laura, and finish in 17:24, a time that would stand, at the end of the day, as the fastest of any of the girl’s races. It would also become the 4th fastest time ever run on this course. Laura was 2nd at 17:33, and with the 8th and 9th place finishes of Olivia Loveland and Pammie Sherman, Redondo looked good to pick up a team title too. Unfortunately, with only four seniors on this young team, and five necessary to compete as a team, they could not be included in the scoring.
The Junior Girls race played out similarly. This time it was Rachel Bush and Lyndsey Mull going straight to the front and pulling away along with teammate Anique Villegas only 2 seconds back through the mile mark. During the second mile Rachel and Lyndsey added another 20 seconds to their lead over Anique, their only real competition. Sprinting down the final stretch Lyndsey gained the advantage, finishing 1st in 17:33 to Rachel’s 17:36. Holding her pace, Anique made it a clean sweep taking 3rd in 18:13, the 9th fastest time of the day. With Brenna Sopp and Lisa Inoue capturing 10th and 26th respectively, the girls won the team title with the low score of 39 points to Torrance’s 2nd with 50, and Warren’s 3rd with 78.
The Sophomore Girls race was another Redondo running exhibition as Kayla Ferron and Cara Ulizio, accompanied by star JV runner Alexis Thibodeau, passed the mile mark so far ahead of the competition, that you couldn’t really call it competition. Alexis fell of the blistering pace in the course of the second mile as the two young rising stars dueled for Sea Hawk super-soph bragging rights. And with the closest finish of the day, Kayla edged out Cara 17:30 to 17:31. Over a minute back, and still unchallenged by any other teams, Alexis crossed the finish line in 3rd, for another Redondo clean sweep, and another team title scoring 43 points to Warren’s 80 for 2nd, and Long Beach Poly’s 104 for 3rd.
The spread between Redondo’s fastest girl and their 5th was only 9 seconds, and only 12 seconds to their 6th. So yes, even in different races, they run together. Adding in the 7th runner only drops the spread to 49 seconds, an enviable grouping for any team.
At the end of the meet, the times of each school’s five fastest runners, regardless of which race they were in, are added together to get their cumulative team times. The results of this “on-paper” competition showed the Redondo girls with a 1:27:31 time for a new course record by 3:26. 2nd went to Bonita at 1:31:48, and 3rd to Warren at 1:32:52.
The Freshman Boys race was combined with a new varsity-type race that was added to the event list only a day before the meet. Concerned with our current heat wave, the meet organizers decided to offer a race for the fastest runners that would be held earlier in the morning when temperatures would be coolest. Avoiding, at all costs, the temptation to call these varsity races, they were nevertheless to be made up of the top seven runners of each team, and would be called Bragging Rights races. The Redondo girls opted out, in favor of staying with their grade-level races, but the varsity boys entered the event seeing an opportunity to go head-to-head with the best teams of the day.
Because of the last minute creation of the Bragging Rights races, it was decided to combine them with the two freshmen races, the first events of the day.
At the start, the Redondo boys varsity and freshmen teams took off, merging into the field as they made their way onto the course. Evan Malone-White and Tyler Caracoza led the Redondo top five through the mile mark at 5:06, just 4 seconds behind the race leaders. The freshmen, led by Will Tait and Dustin Herold moved through in 5:30. By the second mile there was an eight second spread from the first Sea Hawk to the fifth, and considering there as still a mile to go, the half dozen runners ahead of them were still within reach. Dezhan Bland and Garrett Klatte, hanging off the back end of the Redondo pack, moved up in the final stretch with Dezhan following Tyler into the finishing chute by just one second to take 5th place to Tyler’s 4th. It was then Evan in 9th, Garrett in 10th, and Nick Herold in 11th. The spread from Tyler’s 15:23 to Nick’s 15:31 of only 8 seconds highlights the success of their pack-running strategy.
Top bragging rights in the Bragging Rights race went to Redondo with a low score of 39 points to Warren’s 50, and Saint John Boscoe’s 56 being good for 3rd. Unfortunately, as happens sometimes, the team with the low score doesn’t always have the fastest cumulative team time. Today, Warrren snatched that honor from the Sea Hawk boys with a 1:17:09 to Redondo’s 1:17:15. 3rd went to St. John Boscoe for their 1:17:24.
Meanwhile, the Freshman Boys race was unfolding to the rear, but not far to the rear at all. After pacing through much of the race side-by-side, Dustin was able to pull away from teammate Will in the final stages. Both boys, used to front running, experienced an unfamiliar environment with a couple dozen, mostly varsity runners, in front of them. It appears that both used the experience to spur themselves on to greater achievements. Dustin ratcheted up his pace with a 5:11 final mile, and sprinted through the finish ahead of many varsity runners, including two from Redondo, taking 5th in the Freshmen Boys race. Will took the next place in 6th a full 18 seconds back. Brothers Tomohiro and Takahiro Yamaya picked up 13th and 18th, with Paul Bodin closing out the scoring five in 29th. The Sea Hawk frosh won the team title with 69 points, Bonita was 2nd with 83, and Servite was 3rd with 95.
I hope to see everyone at the next XC meet, Bay League #2 at Pollywog Park in Manhattan Beach on Thursday afternoon, October 14th. Look for the preview article on Redondo Beach Patch http://redondobeach.patch.com/ in the week leading up to the meet. Pictures from last year will be included.
Wear red. Be loud. Go Sea Hawks!
Doug Boswell ~ XC Info Director ~ [email protected]