Beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, Track and Field News would hold a National Postal 2-mile high school competition toward the end of cross country season where coaches would mail in their top five times derived from dual meets or time trials. The magazine would compile the results and rank all the teams to determine the top teams in the nation. The shoe company Hoka rekindled that tradition starting in 2014 with the Hoka Postal Nationals. Now, instead of mailing in results, 2-mile meets are held nationwide and sponsored by Hoka. The San Diego race was on Saturday, Nov. 2 at University City High School. Coaches submitted a time estimate for their 2-mile entries, and the races were seeded accordingly. The slower runners were in the early afternoon race starting at 1:30 PM. As the day progressed, the races got faster and faster until the elite heats started at around 8:30 PM. There were eleven boys’ races, six girls’ races, six middle school races, and a mascot race. Many of the races had around 50 kids on the track. Our top two boys’ performances came from the third fastest heat, with Nathon Ayan winning with 10:05.11, followed by Vincent Russo in 14th with 10:22.90.
Their times marked a 41-second improvement for Ayan over last year’s race and an 80-second PR for Russo over the 2-mile distance. There were 42 finishers, nearly all under 11 minutes, so it was a bit crowded. Ayan was content to stay in the pack for most of the race. He moved up to the lead group of six runners with around a lap to go and almost went down trying to go around the pack. With 300 meters to go, he took the lead and pulled away. Over the last 20 meters, Miles Pike from Canyon Crest pulled up nearly even and appeared to have the momentum to pass. However, Ayan had another gear and surged ahead over the last few meters to win by a quarter of a second.
Another outstanding performance was turned in by Andrew Buck, who bested his previous time at the meet by 62 seconds while placing second in an earlier race with a time of 10:42.6.
Jack Letcher was only a few seconds back with a PR time of 30 seconds of 10:48.8 in 13th place in his race. Also under twelve minutes were Nicholas Wosje (11:34) and Xavier Marsh (11:37). Other boys who ran were Anton Youngblood (12:02), Tyler Horton (12:38), Austin Litteral (12:49), Ziggy Raunig (12:54), Oscar Alicandri and Chace Smith
The best performance for the girls came from Morgan Maske, who ran in the second-fastest girls’ race. She placed 14th with 12:01.65, a 21-second PR from last season. Her teammate Gwynne Letcher placed 10th in the third fastest race with a PR time of 12:36. Our third fastest girl was Maesan Everitt, who placed 2nd in her race with 14:02. Other girls who ran were Nadia Roos, Ava Schlomer, Olivia Baker, and Kate Lyons.
