About four decades ago, Track and Field News would hold a National Postal 2-mile high school competition toward the end of cross country season. Coaches would mail in their runners’ top times 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.
Around ten years ago, the shoe company, Hoka, jump-started that tradition by creating the Postal 2-mile nationals. Now, instead of mailing in results, they sponsor 2-mile meets around the country. The San Diego race was last Saturday 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 races, starting at 3:30 pm. As the day progressed, the races got faster and faster until the elite heats started at around 8:30 pm. Most of the races had around 50 kids on the track. Our top two boys, Vincent Russo and Nathan Ayan went into their races under the weather from colds, but both managed times of 10:33. Andrew Buck was our third runner with 10:57. He was followed by Anton Youngblood, freshman Aryton Reyes, Ziggy Raunig, and Oscar Alicandri. The boys’ team ranked 68th in the state.
The best performance for the girls came from Morgan Maske, who ran in the second-fastest girls’ race. She ran her first sub-12-minute 2 miles in 11:58.9 while placing 16th. She was followed by Carly DeVore, Maesan Everett, Vivian Scott, Nadia Roos, Lily Humphrey, Ava Schlomer, and Annalei Berke. The girls’ team ranked 45th in the state.
A popular feature of this event is the mascot 180-meter race. Any school can enter, but its runner must wear the school’s mascot costume and be a school employee or coach. Assistant coach Dr. Joe Mullins donned the Tiki and represented the Islanders.
