By Isabel Barbera and Olivia Chiu
Tiger Staff
South Pasadena Cross Country once again demonstrated its talent today at the Dana Hills Invitational, a non-varsity only race. While no girls’ teams were able to score points due to an insufficient number of runners, all of the boys’ teams were ranked. Both underclassmen boys’ teams performed remarkably, with freshmen boys placing second of 11 teams and sophomore boys securing a notable first place of nine total teams. Junior and senior boys attained seventh of eight teams and sixth of ten teams, respectively.
The lack of runners due to injury left the girls’ squad with only three runners on Saturday. Junior Katherine Conte was the solitary Tiger representative in the junior and senior race and earned 37th place out of 89 with a time of 22:58. In the freshman and sophomore race, sophomore Caroline Liu took 21st out of 79 with a time of 21:59, and freshman Carmella (Star) Shaffer took 43rd at 23:46.
In the boys’ divisions, Nicolo Porcu led the freshmen team at 18:18, placing 11th individually. With Kai Dettman (18:50, 17th), Michael Xiong (19:08, 22nd), Jaemyung Choi (20:18, 40th), and Bryan Castillo (20:36, 46th), the team garnered a total of 83 points. David Seo headed the sophomore boys at 17:17, earning an impressive second place overall. Jay Ebata followed closely behind at a 17:54 and placed tenth individually. Jacob Wielenga (18:24, 22nd), Nathaniel Martinez (18:52, 29th), and Armando Sibrian (18:52, 30th) took the remaining top five team positions, placing the sophomore boys at a momentous first place with 45 points.
While junior and senior boys did not rank as high as their lower classmen counterparts, both teams still made a good showing. Juniors Wayne Monical (17:20, 26th individually), Randy Zhou (19:05, 48th), Griffin Yamada (19:08, 56th), John Heath (19:16, 57th), and Colin Schwantner (20:04, 69th) amassed 172 points and finished penultimately as a team. In the senior division, team captain Amador Lagunas pushed forward and finished at 17:36 and 27th individually. William Walker (18:03, 31st), Kyle Oda (18:16, 36th), Kyle Shimikochi (19:59, 58th), and Kristopher Rollert (20:14, 63rd) comprised the remainder of the scoring senior runners, who obtained a total of 140 points and team ranking of 6th.
“The team did well, but it is important to remember varsity was excluded from this race,” Rollert said. “However, it was also an important opportunity for non-varsity runners to step up and showcase their strengths.”
Non-varsity will compete again at the Staub/Barnes Invitational next Saturday, October 3.
