Last Saturday, Coronado’s cross country team ran in a historical meet that dates back to 1957. Until 1978, Track and Field News would hold a National Postal 2-Mile competition, where teams would send in their five fastest times from these 2-mile meets and a “National Champion” would be named. In 1979, Footlocker National High School Championships were started and thus began a true national championship, naming the “National Champion” more formally. Hoka One One (OH-nee OH-nee) revived this tradition by holding a series of 2-mile races. The Southern California section held their “Flagship” meet at University City Senior High School.
This meet was comprised of eight boys heats and six girls heats, the faster ones taking place in the evening. Teresa Perez, once again, continues to dominate all her races, when she ran in the fastest heat and won. At the sound of the gun, Teresa started her race in the lead with two runners about ten meters behind her. Throughout the race, the lead was changing between these three runners, but on lap seven, Teresa pushed through the last 200 meters side-by-side with Renee Laurenzana from San Pasqual High School. Perez finished by a margin of one second, clocking a PR of 11:06.37 (Mile Pace: 5:33). Her converted 3200-meter time would 11:03, which is a second slower the Coronado’s record of 11:02 held by Renee Phillips. However, Teresa’s time still qualifies in a tie with Phillips’ record for the full 2-mile distance.
Before this meet, Teresa was ranked as the fifth fastest runner in the county. Due to these outstanding results, she has now made her way up to fourth.
In the second fastest heat, four girls from Coronado raced. Jessie Ehret placed third overall in this heat, with a time of 11:47 (Mile Pace: 5:53). She was followed by Naya Tamariz in eighth place, who finished in 11:54 (Mile Pace: 5:57). Abigail Hundley was less than a second behind, also clocking in 11:54. Sofia Van Arsdale finished behind them in thirteenth place.
In the boys’ heats, Spencer Busby ran in the fastest of the eight, clocking 9:53 (Mile Pace: 4:56). Ian Hurlburt won the second fastest heat only one second slower, followed by Connor Jaynes who finished fourth with a time of 10:02 (Mile Pace: 5:01). Recovering from a knee injury, Luke Klingenberg finally came back for his first meet on the track this season. He ran in the next fastest heat, along with Cole Mullins and Cole Nichols, and won with a time of 10:27 (Mile Pace: 5:13). Luke was the top runner last year and will be a major asset in the following CIF meets. Chris Russell ran in the preceding heat and placed fourth, which was a substantial breakthrough. After looking at the results, he would have finished among the top twenty runners in the third fastest heat.
The team now faces the finals next week at Morley Field to determine their standing for CIFs.
Next Meet:
Tuesday, November 7 – Western League Finals at Morley Field
Photos by George Green
