Boys and Girls Cross Country qualify for CIF Finals
11/20/2009 Cross Country
The Warrior cross country teams, both boys and girls, ran as they expected to last Saturday at the CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championship Prelims at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) in Walnut and qualified for this Saturday's Championship Finals.
The boys had the best 1st-to-5th-runner time spread (18 seconds) at the meet and an 82:08 team time that ranked them 57th out of the 229 teams in the race.
Derrick Fleming (16:18), Dillon Scott (16:23); Cameron Mahon (16:25), Michael Evans (16:26), Josh Kingsland (16:36), Jorge Herrera (17:21), and Daniel Toberty (18:03) were the runners that returned Woodbridge to the CIF Championships after a three-year absence from this meet.
The girls ran a very good 97:17 (31st out of the 228 teams in the meet) to make sure that Woodbridge returned to the CIF Championships (after missing out on this meet the previous two years). Nicole (Coco) Evans ran 18:20 (2nd in the race and the #32 overall time of the 2,100 girls in the meet), Molly Babcock ran 18:49 (which would have earned her an individual entry to the finals if the team had not advanced), Marissa Lara ran 19:21, Annie Chan ran 19:35, Youval Yadlin ran 21:12, Olivia Barriga ran 21:47, and Veronika Moralieva ran 23:02.
Complete individual and team Prelim results. (Note: the boys were Div. 3, heat #1, race #15 and the girls were Div. 3, heat #3, race #6.)
Regarding the teams' prelim results, Coach George Varvas stated: "All of our runners did a great job on this hilly course. For most of our runners, this was the first time they ran at Mt. SAC and I thought they did a great job. Our runners were steady at the hills and maintained a perfect place in the race. The goal of the prelims was to qualify for the finals without the best effort of the season. Our teams did exactly that. We did not need to run our best races this week. It is at the finals that we need our best efforts of the season. I think these teams will do just that next week. To go to the CIF prelims and run as effective as we did, it is a great sign that we have a great race in us for next week."
Check out photos of the Prelims meet. (Note: to view any photo gallery, you must be logged on as a registered user.)
At this Saturday's championship races, again at Mt. SAC, the girls team runs at 8:05am and the boys team at 8:45am. Complete championship meet schedule.
Come out this weekend and cheer on your championship Warriors!
