Frogtown Invitational

With the Varsity Girls team getting the weekend off, it was time for some of our newer runners to shine at the Frogtown Invitational at Angels Camp California.

2 very notable results happened on this day.

1. The frosh-soph girls team, despite resting a number of runners, placed 2nd, earning medals at this meet with dozens of other schools.
2. The varsity boys team, made almost entirely of first or second year runners, placed 8th in a field of 23.

Frosh Soph Girls Race

L-R Jasmine Barrita, Briana Campos, Emely Herrera, Blanca Madrigal, Gaby Lopez run as a pack early in the race

One thing that we always try to teach at Hughson is the power of pack running.  Knowing you've got a teammate at your side that can help push you when things get tough is a huge help.  Knowing that teammate next to you is counting on you to keep going as fast as you can is crucial.  Team running is one of the keys to our success at HHS.

Second Place Medalists!

Our FS girls started to figure this concept out on Saturday.   Because the frogtown course is full of potholes and steep downhills where kids are always getting injured (Emily F fractured her fibula here last year), we decided to sit out a number of girls from the FS squad.  Despite the fact that we were not at full strength, Emely Herrera led teammates Jasmine Barrita, Blanca Madrigal, Brianna Campos, and Gaby Lopez to a second place finish overall.

Varsity Boys Race

Austin Hoach and Miguel Ramos both medaled

In our league opener, our Varsity Boys team placed 5th out of 6 teams.  No HHS team has finished that far back in a league race since 1999. We knew we were better than this result and we knew that steady, hard work would pay off.  On Saturday, our boys started to see a little bit of the results that we know will come by the end of the season.

After being beaten fairly handily on September 6th by league rivals Escalon, Ripon and Hilmar, our boys were ready to take another crack at these foes.  4 TVL teams were among the 23 small school teams competing on this day.

Our boys were again led by juniors Austin Hoach and Miguel Ramos. Hoach and Ramos ran a controlled race that 23rd and 24th in a field of 191 athletes to earn medals.  Hoach and Ramos have been our top dogs all season.  The difference for us this time was that new runners David Magallanes, Trace Huber and Murphy Phillips began to close the gap and run closer to Hoach and Ramos.  This improvement from runners 3,4, and 5 allowed us to get a little revenge on Hilmar and Ripon.  On this day, we beat those two TVL opponents.  Escalon placed 5th in the race and is looking like the strongest boys team in the TVL this year, but we have a few cards yet to play that should allow us to compete well with them by the end of the year..... Stay Tuned!

Frogtown Photos