Cross Country season gets underway with two meets last week.
After a six-month delay, Coronado High School Cross Country started last Saturday, February 13. Had the season started last August, we would have had all of our league meets at Morley Field on the City Conference course. We would also have scheduled “Cluster Meets” where all schools compete in the same race, with the results sorted out by team matchups. To comply with COVID restrictions, the Western League Coaches got together and created a schedule of dual meets at various schools, the first being at Cathedral Catholic on Saturday Feb 13th, followed by meets every Saturday throughout the season. On the 13th, all six schools had a meet with one other school. Our meet was with Mira Mesa. The schools in the Western League are Coronado, Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa, Cathedral Catholic, University City, and Point Loma. Saturday isn’t the best day of the week for a meet because it competes with club sports and previously planned outings. Still, there was no other option because there are no other places available during the week. The course was set-up on a hilly 2.66-mile circuit around Cathedral Catholic. Several of our better runners couldn’t attend the meet, but we did have our top girl, senior Abigail Hundley, who placed second in our race with a time of 17:26. Out of all the races, she had the fifth-best time.
Freshman Claire Cook was 4th with 19:45, followed by junior Lily Clemens (8th). The next two finishers were freshmen, Maya Voltin (9th) and Caroline Cole (10th). Mira Mesa won the team race 22-33.
Our top boy runner, junior Landon Mullins, sat this one out because of a nagging injury, but senior Micah Arnott came through with a fifth-place finish in 17:23. The rest of our finishers were all freshmen, with Detrik Heidt placing 6th with a time of 18:11, followed by Spencer Williams (7th), Jack Shumaker (9th), Baxter Simpson (12th), Jackson Garrett (13th), and Luca Durocher (15th). Mira Mesa won the team race 18-39.
Two days before the Saturday meet, we got word that Morley Field would be open the next week and that we had to have a league meet on Tuesday. This date was non-negotiable, so the question was whether to cancel the Saturday meet and switch over to the Tuesday schedule. The coaches voted to keep the Saturday meet, so we had two meets with only a couple of recovery days. It was good to get back to Morley Field, even though we could not have cluster meets. Our opponent was D-I powerhouse Scripps Ranch over the City Conference 3.11 mile cross country course used by all three leagues, City, Eastern, and Western. In the girls’ race, Hundley had her work cut out for her against Scripps’ Chloe Ellermeyer, who won the race, with Hundley placing second with a time of 19:45. Cook was second for us, placing eighth in 22:38 with Julia Mineo in close pursuit in ninth with 22:46. The rest of our finishers were Anna Youngblood, Clemens, Voltin, and Cole.
Mullins was our first boy finisher, placing seventh with a time of 18:37. He’s still hurting from an injury and not yet up to last years’ form when he was a full minute faster. Conor Youngblood had the best race of his life with an eighth-place finish. His time of 18:40 was a minute and forty seconds faster than his previous best.
Arnott placed fifth for us, followed by Heidt, Williams, Simpson, Shumaker, and Droucher. Scripps Ranch won the boys race 15-48.
