Story by Amber Chen
Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Michael Parkinson
Contributor
The girls and boys cross country teams both placed first in the Jade D-IV races at the Apache Invitational on Friday, Nov. 1.
Star sophomore Sydney Morrow placed first, a whole 18 seconds before the second place finisher. Morrow earned a personal record of 17:42.00, nine seconds short of the SPHS girls three mile record.
“It’s really thrilling to know that I’m close to holding the school record. All SPHS track and cross country coaches respect Helena Van Loan [the current record holder] and it would be amazing to have that same respect,” Morrow said.
Fellow sophomore Mai Koyama ended in seventh in 19:22.4, and junior Lindsay Michels (9) clocked in at 19:30.9.
Junior Amelia Jarolim ran a 20:03.6 for 21st place, while sophomore Kerrigan Riley’s 20:08.8 time was good for 23rd. With a 20:39.8 time, sophomore Lilian Zhu placed 33rd as senior Amber Gonzalez-Pacheco and sophomore Miranda Liu finished 37th and 38th, respectively.
The boys team showed off its potential to podium at state, winning first place by a margin of 23 points. Senior Sam Clark ran a 15:37.3, placing eighth. Juniors Andrew Villapadua (11), Patrick Latting (13), and Andrew Parkinson (15) finished in 15:52.4, 16:07.2, and 16:16.0, respectively.
In 19th place, sophomore Brady Nakamura set a personal record time of 16:21.5. Rounding out the top 50, sophomore Liam de Villa placed 36th in 17:00.4 and David Zhang finished in 41st with a 17:10.0.
“The team did exactly what I wanted,” coach Michael Parkinson said. “We won our varsity races without having to push all out. A few went perhaps faster than necessary, but overall, ran according to plan to prepare for the championship postseason.”
The Tigers will compete in Rio Hondo League finals at Lacy Park on Thursday, Nov. 7, before continuing on to CIF preliminaries.
