You can’t always get what you want…
But we did get 4th, which is all we needed this week. For the first time ever (and by ever, I mean to the extent of my knowledge as well as the knowledge of a couple others who should know), both the boys and girls varsity teams advance to CIF SS Finals. More on that below…

This past Saturday, both varsity teams toed the line with admission to Southern Section Finals on the line. You may know (though I’m going to tell you again) that out of the 50 states, Texas, New York, Illinois and California are BY FAR the most competitive in XC. Probably in other sports, too. And of those states, the California’s Southern Section (to which we belong) is among the most competitive – if not THE most competitive. What I’m trying to say is, advancing is hard. Really hard.

Varsity Girls
• Team places 4th
• Top 20 finishes by Cori Harral (15) and Alyssa Perez (20)

Varsity Boys
• Team places 4th
• Jeff Kirwin places third (with a PR) for the only Top 20

All Time Top Ten
• Jeff Kirwin moves into a tie for #2 all time on this course

Important Links
• Results
• Official Results (Girls)
• Official Results (Boys)
• Meet Videos

Significant Time Improvements
Over 0:30 improvement – Taylor Butler, Emily Hoey
Over 1:00 improvement – Alyssa Perez

Both teams will race again at CIF SS Finals, also at Mt SAC – girls at 8:05 am, boys at 8:45 am. Click HERE for more details. We’ll run one heat for each division with the top seven teams advancing to the State Championships.

What to Watch For
Both teams will have to place higher to advance. The good news is that the boys have run faster at Mt SAC and the girls, having taken over two minutes off of last year’s Prelims time, are peaking at exactly the right time.
Morning races should mean cooler temps than last week, and we like cool weather.
We can do this. Let’s eat turkey in Clovis!

Mt SAC.  Home of the cowbell.  Every race winner gets one.  Bringing one home to Glendora, while possible, would have been a tall order this weekend.  We ran against the top competition in the state – including ranked D1 and D2 teams from our section, the rest of the state and even a few schools from out of state.  We like to compete against the best.

 

 

This is where the home stretch toward the post-season begins.  We see where we stack up against our D2 competition and maybe what we need to work on for the last few weeks.  The good news is that we probably justified our rankings.  The great news is that there’s room for improvement… and we’re improving!

We’ll recap in the order we raced:

 

 

JV Boys

• Team took 13th of 27
• Top 100 finishes (huge field) from Bradford Kidd (38), Richard Johnson (62), Eric Netzeband (83) and Josh Jackson (94)
• Complete race results HERE

 

JV Girls

• Team took 18th of 20
• Top 100 finishes (huge field) from Katrina Reynolds (66) and Taylor Leech (87)
• Complete race results HERE

 

JV Girls Champs (runners 8-14)

• Team took 17th of 18
• Team was led across the line by Frosh Savannah Yi (see ATTT below)
• Complete race results HERE

 

Varsity Girls Sweepstakes

• Team took 12th of 20, with just 4 Southern Section D2 teams ahead of them
• Official team time of 96:01 was just 0:04 off our Course record – but at least one coach (from another school) suspects the official timing was problematic (Glendora’s inexperienced and occasionally accurate hand timing team had our varsity girls at 95:44 (that would have been a CR)
• Top 50s from Cori Harral (32) and Emily Hoey (46)
• Complete race results HERE

 

Varsity Boys Sweepstakes

• Team took 13th of 16, 3rd among SS D2
• Top 50s from Jeff Kirwin (9) and Parker Seale (28)
• Complete race results HERE

 

Frosh Girls

• Team took 13th with top two frosh girls running in JV Champs race
• Team was led across the line by Deanna Lopez
• Complete race results HERE

 

Frosh Boys

• Team took 14th
• Team was led across the line by Carlos San Juan
• Complete race results HERE

 

Soph Girls

• Team was led across the line by Nicole Fuentes
• Complete race results HERE

 

Soph Boys

• Top 50s from Matt Joy (45) and Michael Hernandez (48)
• Complete race results HERE

 

All Time Top Ten (we actually go to 15 and track Frosh Top Ten at MSAC – it’s just that important)

• Savannah Yi stamped her name on the Frosh List at #10
• Cori Harral improves to #4, Alyssa Perez and Taylor Butler debut at 8 and 15 respectively (I know, #15 on the Top Ten isn’t logical, just go with it)
• Jeff Kirwin (3) improves his time by a few seconds and is joined by Parker Seale (T8)

 

Important Links

• Boys Results
• Girls Results
• Updated All Time Top Ten
  
• Meet Coverage with Complete Results from ALL Races
• Race Photos
• Race Videos

 

Significant Time Improvements

Over 1:00 improvement - Elijah Kouyoumdjian, Parker Seale, Michael Hernandez

Over 2:00 improvement – Nicole Fuentes

And two familiar names whose times (again) exceed generalization: Katrina Reynolds (3:00), Kathryn Cisneros (3:42)

 

Athletes of the Meet

Richard Johnson - He not only puts in the quality work and effort to perform his best, he exemplifies the captain’s role by ensuring his teammates have everything they need to be successful

Katrina Reynolds - Steady consistent work and a great attitude have resulted in excellent results (see above); great job, Katrina

 

 

See you back here for League Finals on 11/6

RECORDS!  We have records.

It’s a pun.  Your parents can explain it to you.

The Tartans took on Baseline League foes Rancho Cucamonga, Alta Loma, Etiwanda, Los Osos and Upland last Wednesday at Glen Helen Regional Park.  For the last few years, this has been our FIRST league meet location.  Since Glen Helen showed up later on our race calendar, the weather was much cooler and we are in better shape at this point.  And our times showed as much (hence, the records).

 

Varsity Girls

• Team took first place by 19 points over Rancho Cucamonga (27-46)
• Team time was the best in GHS history (all three years of it at this course) by over four minutes
• Top Ten finishes by Emily Hoey (3), Cori Harral (4), Chloe Arriaga (5), Alyssa Perez (6), and Tori Whitworth (9)

 

Varsity Boys

• Team took first with 27 points (7 points better than the first league meet), beating Etiwanda (57, same as last meet) and Rancho Cucamonga (59, also same as last meet)
• Team improved its mark by nearly three minutes
• Jeff Kirwin won the race
  
• Top Tens (other than Jeff) for Parker Seale (3), Sam Johnny (5) and Damon Payne (7)

 

JV Girls

• Team won the race with just 24 points, besting RCHS (45) and Los Osos (87)
• Top 20 (because it’s a bigger field) finishes from Kayla McGarrell (2), Danielle York (3), Savannah Yi (5), Lauren Kuehfuss (6), Sofi Rodriguez (8), Kathryn Cisneros (9), Madison Ko (11), Emily DuPont (12),  and Rebecca Ruiz (15)

 

JV Boys

• Team placed 3rd behind RCHS and Etiwanda (32, 37, 83)
• Bradford Kidd (12), Josh Jackson (15), Gregor Derstepanian (16), Matt Joy (19) score Top 20 finishes

 

All Time Top Ten

• Jeff Kirwin (1) continues to rewrite the GHS XC record books by taking over the top spot and is joined by Parker Seale (2), Sam Johnny (3), Damon Payne(5), Oliver Kashyap (6) and Mike Duke (8)
• Emily Hoey (1), Cori Harral (2), Chloe Arriaga (3) and Alyssa Perez (4) become the first four Glendora girls to break 19 minutes at this course; also on the  ATTT are Tori Whitworth (6), Kayla McGarrell (9) and Danielle York (10)

 

Important Links

• Boys Results
• Girls Results
• Updated All Time Top Ten
  
• Meet Coverage with Complete

 

Significant Time Improvements

Over 1:00 improvement – Chloe Arriaga, Kayla McGarrell, Sofi Rodriguez, Madison Ko, Parker Seale, Gregor Derstepanian, Richard Johnson, Josh Bowman, Carlos Torres

Over 2:00 improvement – Alyssa Perez, Emily Dupont, Watts Waddington, Elijah Kouyoumdjian

And then there are SEVERAL times that defy generalization: Michael Hernandez (4:15), Katrina Reynolds (5:21), Ryan Ferguson (6:13), Sydney Carlson (6:25), Julie Miller (6:27), Kathryn Cisneros (7:54) and Nicole Fuentes (9:16) – Un. Be. Leivable.

 

Athletes of the Meet

Sam Johnny – Should we call him Mr. Reliable of Mr. Hard Work?  Would either of those two be enough?  Sam gets lots of respect (and some mad props) for what he has accomplished this season.

Savannah Yi – If you were lucky enough to see her race, you saw a great example of testing your ability.  She gives her all in every race and is getting better every time.

Despite sending only two teams to Estancia High School, there is lots to report from this past weekend’s Cross Country Classic (or, as most of us know it, Woodbridge Invitational).  And the fairy tale part?  Well, like any good fairy tale,  there were three magical moments on Saturday night.

 

Magical Moment #1

The varsity girls finished 3rd in the Rated race (just 4 points from 2nd) with an AMAZING 18 second spread across the five scorers.  AND, all seven varsity girls finished in the medals: Alyssa Perez (26), Cori Harral (28), Megan Trono (30), Chloe Arriaga (31), Emily Hoey (55), Taylor Butler (65) and Tori Whitworth (75).

 

Magical Moment #2

Jeff Kirwin posted the fastest three-mile race time in GHS history, finishing 9th and leading the boys to a 13th place finish, against the top teams in the state, in the Sweepstakes race . Now, 13th may not seem so amazing at first glance, but considering the size of the meet and the level of competition, this is a BIG DEAL.  The GHS boys validated their early season state ranking and made an early case for themselves as podium contenders at season’s end. Medals were also awarded to Parker Seale (29) and Sam Johnny (99).

 

Magical Moment #3

Cinderella makes an appearance – Marcos Perez lost his shoe in the first mile.  He has it back now, but we’re not sure if it was courtesy of a princess or not…

By the way, unlike Cinderella, who went home after losing her shoe, Marcos finished the race.

 

Athletes of the Meet

Boy AoM is Jeff Kirwin, because 14:26.  That’s not a typo.

Honorable mention goes to Marcos Perez for his Cinderella performance.

Girl AoM goes to Alyssa Perez who showed a strong effort throughout the entire race.  If you want a great example of someone who is always pushing hard, never gives up and wrings as much performance out of herself as her body is able to give, come check out AP.

 

Important Links

• Girls’ results
• Boys’ results
• Complete results
• Full coverage
• Updated All Time Top Ten
• GHS Photos

 

Getting Faster

And this space’s favorite section, improvement over last year’s time (because we may not have a shot at winning, but we all have the chance to improve):

Over 1 minute improvement - Damon Payne, Chloe Arriaga, Taylor Butler

Over 2 minute improvement – Marcos Perez

Over 3 minute improvement -

Improvements too large to generalize - Cori Harral posted a 4:30 improvement over her 2010 time – WOW!

 

 

 

 

 

The Watch Doesn’t Lie

Saturday’s Tartan Top 7 brought the first opportunity for us to race under “real” conditions.  Kind of.

We left the racing flats at home (along with the cool weather, apparently) and we ran as training groups for about 2/3 of the race.

 

 

The highlights:

• The top 5 boys finished within 35 seconds of each other, and the top 7 finished within 46 seconds of each other.
• The girls’ top 5 gap was 3 seconds, 9 seconds for top 7
• Nicole Fuentes and Michael Hernandez were ATHLETES OF THE MEET taking 3:24 and 3:54 (respectively) off their 2012 times over this same course.
• Parent help was at a four-year high – with several parents happily giving up the opportunity to see the finish so that they could  (wo)man the course and help keep runners from straying.
• The new varsity jerseys hand made by Coach Steve – this is how traditions start…

 

Click HERE for the girls results and HERE for the boys results.

 

Congratulations to our varsity teams for the Fastback Shootout on September 14:

Jeff Kirwin, Parker Seale, Mike Duke, Oliver Kashyap, Damon Payne, Sam Johnny and Marcos Perez.

Alyssa Perez, Megan Trono, Chloe Arriaga, Cori Harral, Danielle York, Emily Hoey and Tori Whitworth.

 

 

And while not everyone can wear the coveted varsity jersey,  everyone CAN improve.  The following athletes delivered major improvements over last year’s times:

Over 1 minute improvement - Ryan Ferguson, Natalie Honeywell, Alyssa Perez

Over 2 minute improvement – Madison Ko, Robert Rodriguez (14)

 

Southern California was hot this past Wednesday.  And it was hot again on Saturday for the Wayne Walker/Sunny Hills Invitational in Fullerton, where athletes compete by grade level.

Isn’t it fall?

Apparently the calendar does not communicate with the thermometer, so we run XC in the heat of summer.

 

The highlights:

 

Senior Boys

• Team places 3rd
• Ryan Sanchez sets GHS course record (for the second consecutive year) while placing SECOND overall
• Aaron Reyes places 17th
• Camron Sharp finishes 23rd

Junior Girls

• Team places 6th
• Cori Harral takes 2nd (and THIRD all-time on this course for GHS)
• Taylor Butler claims 10th (and EIGHTH all-time on this course for GHS)
• Alyssa Perez places 14th

Junior Boys

• Team places 8th
• Mike Duke takes 2nd

Sophomore Girls

• Teams takes 3rd
• Micaela Lamb WINS the race, tying the GHS course record
• Megan Trono finishes 6th

Sophomore Boys

• Team puts 5 runners in the top 9 spots to score 25 points and place FIRST, a decisive 60  points ahead of second place; earns a new nickname

• Jeff Kirwin takes 2nd
• Daniel Castro places 4th
• Oliver Kashyap finishes 5th
• Parker Seale claims 7th
• Sam Johnny captures 9th

Frosh girls

• Team places 13th
• Emily DuPont takes 18th

Frosh Boys

• Team places 6th
• Nathan Bowman claims 11th
• Marcus Perez takes 12th

 

Important Links

• Girls’ results
• Boys’ results
• Complete results
• Updated All Time Top Ten (TWO new #1s)

 

And this space’s favorite section, improvement over last year’s time (because we may not have a shot at winning, but we all have the chance to improve):

Over 1 minute improvement – Aaron Reyes, Adam Johnson, David DeLeon, Oliver Kashyap, Parker Seale

Over 2 minute improvement – none

Over 3 minute improvement – Megan Trono

Improvements too large to generalize – none

 

 

The Watch Doesn’t Lie

Saturday’s Tartan Top 7 brought the first opportunity for us to race under “real” conditions.  And the results were pretty darn good.

 

 

The highlights:

•  SIX girls posted times faster than last year’s top girl, while FIVE boys bested last year’s top boy.
• The top 5 boys finished within 30 seconds of each other, and the top 7 finished within 44 seconds of each other.
• THREE boys posted times faster than the previous Tartan Top 7 ALL TIME BEST!
• Megan Trono and Oliver Kashyap were MOST IMPROVED taking a whopping 8:14 and 5:15 (respectively) off their 2011 times.

Click HERE for the girls results and HERE for the boys results.  You’ll need to be patient for the updates to the ALL TIME BEST list - there are several new additions, and a new format to be completed.  They should be posted by tomorrow.

 

Our varsity teams for next week’s Bronco Invitational are:

Ryan Sanchez (the 2011 Tartan Top 7 winner), Jeff Kirwin, Garrett Hernandez, Mike Duke, Oliver Kashyap, Damon Payne and Daniel Castro.

Emily Hoey (also the 2011 Tartan Top 7 winner), Micaela Lamb, Cori Harrall, Megan Trono, Tori Whitworth, Taylor Butler and Danielle York.

 

And while not everyone can wear the coveted varsity jersey,  everyone CAN improve.  The following athletes delivered major improvements over last year’s times:

Over 1 minute improvement - Jeff Kirwin, Damon Payne, Marcos Perez, Anthony Moreno, Emily Hoey, Micaela Lamb, Cori Harrall, Sofi Rodriguez, Katrina Reynolds, Hannah Rabitoy

Over 2 minute improvement – Parker Seale, Sam Johnny, Aaron Reyes, Bradford Kidd, Adam Johnson

Over 3 minute improvement – Lauren Kuehfuss

First time finisher - Danielle York

 

We are sometimes reminded that there are things in life more important than running fast.  Well beyond the times posted on Saturday and reported above, I’m most proud of this team’s ability to, on very short notice, raise over $400 in (mostly) cash and gift cards for XC alum Chris Vega and his family.  The money, gift cards and notes you all wrote, will be delivered to Chris’s aunt tomorrow.  Well done Tartan XC, well done.

Photos? – send ‘em to info@glendoraxc.net

Also, whoever picked up my (Coach Ramsey’s) black adidas fleece pull-over – give it back, please!  Got it back!  Thanks…

Our boys team ended the 2011 XC season with an 11th place finish in the California State Division II Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.  It was a great achievement for our boys to advance to the State meet for only the second time in school history.  We did well to move up three spots from our pre-meet ranking, but we still didn’t reach our full potential.

We were led by soph Mike Duke – his 58th/16:18 finish was good for 10th on the All GHS List for Woodward Park.  He was followed by Ryan Sanchez, Garrett Hernandez, Austin Mendoza and Aaron Forburger for our scoring five on a day when our 1-5 gap was only 13 seconds.  Brandon Nelli and Jeff Kirwin rounded out the team.  Special honor goes to seniors Austin, Aaron and Brandon who closed out their GHS XC careers on the biggest stage in our sport.

And while our performance may have been slightly disappointing, it’s helpful to take a larger perspective.  There are over 1500 high schools in California, and the guys finished 31st in a merge of all the divisions.  That puts us in the top 2% – and that’s pretty good.

Well done guys.

Links

• Full Results (Includes electronic splits)
• Athletic.net Results
• Dyestat Coverage
• SGV Tribune Coverage
• GHS Splits