The final Cross Country meet of the season, barring anyone advancing to the state meet in Fresno, will be the CIF championship this Saturday at Morley Field. Regardless of how many runners a school has on its roster, only seven are allowed in championship races. Our criteria for choosing which of our runners will advance is their times for the season on our league course, with emphasis on the league finals, which were last Friday, also at Morley Field. Two of our top runners, Nathan Ayan and Morgan Maske, could not run in the finals because of schedule conflicts, but their times over the league course guaranteed them a place. Vincent Russo posted an 18-second PR (Personal Record) for the boys at 17:27 at the league finals. This time was also the fastest boys’ mark of the season over the 3.11-mile City Conference course. Jack Letcher had a 10-second PR at 17:49, followed by Andrew Buck (18:17, a 45-second PR), Nicholas Wosje (19:44), Anton Youngblood, and Xavier Marsh. Although Youngblood’s 19:43 was a PR for the season, it was nearly three minutes faster than his time over the same course last year.
Gwynne Letcher’s 20:38 was a 23-second PR for the girl’s team. Maesan Everitt, Nadia Roos, Jaya Jost, Ava Schlomer, and Olivia Barker also advanced to the CIF finals. Because of their finishes in the top 20 of the varsity races Russo (14th) and the Letcher siblings, Jack (20th) and Gwynne (11th), are on the Eastern League second team.
