Photos by Richard Gomez
The South Pas cross country team commenced its season during the Woodbridge XC Classic at Silver Lakes Sports Park on Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16. The girls’ and boys’ teams concluded their first races in overall fifth and fifteenth place, respectively. Individual results were strong and included many personal records.
The girls’ varsity cross country team secured fifth place overall with a cumulative time of 96:46:5.Their impressive performance featured several personal records and displays of great improvement for the girls.
Leading the South Pas girls was freshman Brooke Robinson with a run time of 18:41. This exceptional performance places Robinson among the top 20 from the 200 runners in the girls’ race. The potential of Robinson and other freshmen shows promise and is sure to advance the Tigers this season. Senior Maddy Engelsman came in second with a strong time of 19:16, also setting her personal record and making the top 25 runners. Placing third among South Pas girls was senior Bailey Wu running a 19:27. Following close behind were juniors Lindsey Calva and Sarah Uriarte running solid times of 19:31 and 19:49, respectively – both personal records. Sophomore Amber Gonzalez and senior Celeste Amaya closed out the race with times of 20:20.5 and 20:20.8, respectively.
“We have a great mix of young talent and experienced varsity runners on our varsity team this year. Woodbridge was a very fast race for us with many of us breaking our old records and working together to grab 5th place overall.” said Engelsman.”This race definitely gave us a glimpse at what looks to be a very strong season for our team!”
The boys’ varsity team opened up its individual season the following day on September 16 at the Woodbridge Classic. Despite improving overall team time and individually performing well, the Tigers placed 15th, lower than they did the previous year, with a time of 1:18:26. Still, this may have been due to the fact that South Pas had to face more schools this year.
First among the South Pas boys was senior Oliver Chang, who ran an impressive 15:02 placing him in the top 20 out of 200 runners in the boys race. Coming in next were sophomore Sam Clark and junior Alexander Grijalva, and junior Kai Dettman with times of 15:40 and 15:49, and 15:51, respectively. Following close behind were junior Nicolo Porcu and senior Alexander Gallardo, running 16:01 and 16:12, respectively. Wrapping up the team’s time was senior Jay Ebata running 16:55.
Despite the Tigers lower placement, the team was able to run solid times and perform well individually. The additional number of teams may have played a part in South Pas’ ranking. Still, the Tigers are on track for a strong upcoming season and are likely to advance far.
The South Pas XC teams will run their first league meet on September 21 at Lacy Park.
Solid article. I’m glad to hear about how amazing the SPXC team is doing!
However, there is one error in here. The Varsity boys actually ran a slower team time than last year, but only by a few seconds. 2016 had a faster top 5 aggregate time, which is how the team times are calculated :)
Good luck XC!