Zehr, Williams, Mitchell, Edwards run as a pack
The big story is that our Varsity Boys upset Riverbank 40-43
after they had beaten us by almost 40 points 3 weeks ago. But, the bigger
picture is that almost every runner on the team had a great race and is now
taking a well deserved mini break from organized training.
Here are the Summaries.
JV Girls Race
We were a little depleted in this race. Normal top JV
girl, Evelyn Gonzales was feeling sick and was not able to give a 100% effort
but ran a brave effort to finish as our second runner. Also missing from
the group were 2 of our normal top 5 JV girls, Diana Brown and Karla Vega, both
out with minor injuries. Melissa Alcazar stepped up and took the top spot
for us, beating her previous best time for that course by over a minutes.
As a matter of fact. All of the girls who ran in the JV race set personal
best times.
JV Boys Race
Our JV boys once again showed that they are far and away the
best young group in the Trans Valley League. Once again, our boys: Carson
Boice, Jaymie Jackson, Logan Seagle, and Dalton Santiesteban placed 1-4 in the
JV race. The difference is that all of them ran faster than the winning
time from last season’s TVL championship meet. But, the JV team has more
than just those 4 good runners. We had a huge second pack, finishing
between 12:41 for 2 miles and 13:06. Jeffery Jackson, who finished as our
11th runner on the day, would have been in the top 5 for each of the
last 5 years’ teams. Corbin Eccles was our 5th runner on the
day, and his time would have been good enough to place him as our 2nd
or 3rd runner on the JV teams in each of the last 5 years.
Clearly we are chocked full with good runners at the FS level. Hopefully
we can translate the depth of our talent in the younger group into future
success with the varsity group.
Varsity Girls Race
Once again, a race day scratch kind of sabotaged our chances
for team success. Heavyn Herroz has been battling calf issues since track
season in the spring. She has been running well lately, having good
workouts, but tightness in her troublesome calf led me to scratch her from the
race. Once again, though, the girls who did run performed very
well. Maddy Mays beat her best time on the TVL course by a second, moving
her up to #6 on our all time list of runners on that course. Behind her,
Taylor Gray and Sarah Daugherty significantly improved their times from the
first TVL meet of the season, while newcomer Stephanie Garcia (formerly of
Grace Davis HS) helped fill in our varsity pack. Gaby Mays was our
5th runner on the day, also improving her time from the first TVL
meet by almost a minute. Our girls were 4th on the day, but should
be much more competitive at TVL finals at the end of October.
Varsity Boys Race
This race was a huge surprise for not only us and Riverbank,
but for Scott Durham, who runs the Stanislaus County
Distance website (the link I’ve sent takes you to the site. Photos of
the meet are linked at the bottom of the article.). At the TVL opener
meet, we were without two of our Varsity top 5, Austin Zehr and Jared
Williams. Both runners were back and eager to race at TVL meet #2.
To help us even more, one of Riverbanks twin stars, Emanuel Chavez, had injured
his hamstring at a meet in Orange County over the weekend. With us being
stronger and them being weaker, I knew it would be a close meet between the two
of us. We got solid contributions from all of our top 5 runners. When
the score is as close as it was, 1 runner outkicking another will provide the
deciding point that either results in victory or defeat. We managed to
win the most critical of those individual battles and come away with a victory.
Daniel Yanez ran the best race of his life, finishing the
3.1 mile course in 17:16 (a time that ties him with 2003 TVL champion David
McKay for 6th on our all time list for the TVL course). He
hung tough with the other Chavez Twin (Adan) and Alec Norling of Ripon for 2
miles before losing contact in the last mile. Still, his 3rd place
finish got the ball rolling for us in the team scoring. More importantly,
Daniel finished 26 seconds ahead of Ruben Paredez of Riverbank who had beaten
him the last time the two raced (9/6 in Folsom). Zehr finished 1 spot
behind Paredez and 2 spots ahead of long time nemesis Kenzye Spears of
Hilmar. Tristan Edwards had a massive PR on the day to finish as our 3rd
runner in 9th place overall (1 place behind Riverbank’s 3rd
runner Carlos Martinez). Edwards improved his time over 1:20 from the
first TVL meet and placed significantly higher in the field than at at the TVL
opener. If there is one performance that I can credit for our win, it is
his.
We lost the individual battles for positions 1-3, but the
depth that we have with our 4th and 5th runners was the
deciding factor on the day. Wyatt Mitchell and Jared Williams both beat
Riverbank’s #4 runner Diego Ruiz. At the end of the race, Diego was
kicking hard and closing in on Jared and Wyatt, but our two guys found an extra
gear and held him off. That position battle sealed the win for us.
If Ruiz had outkicked our guys, Riverbank would have prevailed.
Our team is now enjoying a break from organized
training. I told them to take 4 days and just run how they feel. If
they have any small injuries, fatigue or soreness, they are just going to run
easy, or even rest a bit. Some of our kids are feeling great and have
decided to use these 4 days to increase their training mileage. All of
our top 5 varsity boys were out bright and early Saturday morning for a relaxed
9 mile run. We know that Riverbank will be better when we get to TVL
finals and that we need to be better too!
