On Thursday, 43 8th and 9th graders from three of our four junior high schools competed on a tough 3200m XC course at Elings Park that went around the lower softball fields once, the upper soccer fields twice, up and down the road to the flagpole with 2 loops of Singleton Pavilion thrown in. It was a tough course and the young runners could take pride in finishing.
Kevin Young has been coaching the La Cumbre team once a week for 2 months as Club West was helping the JHS after school sports program (run by SB City Parks and Rec). Robin Paulsen coached the Goleta Valley kids and Jenny Kenyon coached at La Colina, we could not find any runners at SB JHS.
Young’s La Cumbre XC team was the soccer team who once a week ran XC workouts around the school. Jaime was a lanky guy who played many years of soccer and liked to push himself (not every kid does) and he had won both dual practice meets. Big Josh, the biggest, most muscular kid in the race, is used to being the best in all sports. Ricardo, the shortest guy on the team, reminds Young of himself as a kid: no height but all heart. But two days before the race he couldn’t run from a hamstring pull. La Cumbre had 18 boys and 4 girls at the meet, the largest team.
At 4PM the gun went off and everybody went out too fast. After the first big loop big Josh, ignoring coach’s pre-race advice, had the big lead, but up the hill to the upper field he lumbered and Jaime and the new kid from La Colina, Nate Fung, passed him.
Nate and Jaime then ran side by side around the upper field, pushing eachother, gaining distance from the field. Up the hill and around the pavilion the two still ran side by side, but when they returned from the flagpole Nate was all alone. Later it was learned that Jaime did not know the course and wasn’t sure how far it was to go, and he just had to walk to get air.
When you are near exhaustion and you don’t know how far you have to go, it is really tough. At that point, Young told Jaime to catch his breath then go again, he was still in 2nd place, with Josh and the field now catching up fast. In 4th was Ryan, the tough little kid from La Colina, followed by Ricardo and Joseph from La Cumbre.
Over the last part of the race Nate extended his lead and won by 35 seconds in 12:14. It was a dominating performance by this inexperienced and very talented young runner. Josh came on strong and finished 2nd in 12:49.
There was a race for 3rd as Jaime just held off Ryan by 2 seconds, 12:56 to 12:58. Ricardo and Joseph ran well together and took 5th and 6th. Thanks to Julio in 9th La Cumbre took the boys team title!
They were hooting and hollering when the winner was announced and the kids took turns holding the team trophy above their heads.
For girls Goleta Valley won easily led by Lauren von Valkenburg’s 13:34, 6th place overall (Lauren keeps a training diary and runs a lot).
Everyone enjoyed McConnell’s Cookies and Cream ice cream after the race and before the awards. The next day, La Cumbre school officials put the team trophy and a photo montage of the runners in the trophy case next to their main office.
FIRST ANNUAL SANTA BARBARA JUNIOR H.S. CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS (3200 m.)
SPONSOR- CLUB WEST
OCT. 30, 2008
ELINGS PARK
RESULTS- BOYS
1. Nate Fung, La Col 12:14
2. Josh Morales, La Cum 12:49
3. Jaime Santiago, La Cum 12:56
4. Ryan Sorenson, La Col 12:58
5. Ricardo Huarte, La Cum 13:32
6. Joseph Meza, La Cum 13:39
7. Nick Mainor, La Col 13:50
8. Jonathan Bommerez, GV 13:51
9. Julio Rangel, La Cum 14:11
10. Nick Snider, La Col 14:13
11. Wes Cooperman, GV 14:18
12. Ivan Elias, La Cum 14:55
13. Diego Rios, La Cum 15:12
14. Brian Godinez, La Cum 15:25
15. Jose Valdez, La Cum 15:37
16. Jren Meinhold, La Col 16:36
17. Andy Hernandez, GV 17:17
18. Niles Sterner, GV 17:18
19. Luis Torres, La Cum 17:21
20. Daniel Zarate, La Cum 17:16
21. Jairo Aguilar, La Cum 17:25
22. Chayane Marquina, La Cum 17:46
23. Cristian Jaimes, La Cum 17:46
24. Ceasar Juanice, La Cum 18:02
25. Charco ____-, La Cum 18:05
26. Patric Taylor, GV 18:08
27. Julio Ortiz, La Cum 20:04
28. Francisco Ramirez, La Cum 20:27
29. Max Gold, GV 24:03
SCORING:
1. La Cumbre 25
2. La Colina 36
3. Goleta Valley 67
RESULTS- GIRLS
1. Lauren van Valkenburg, GV 13:34
2. Kimberly Loo, La Col 14:37
3. Emi Parker, GV 15:11
4. Hailey Goodner, GV 15:36
5. Niema Poindexter, La Col 15:38
6. Shauny Grant, GV 16:14
7. Shannon Thoits, GV 16:23
8. Kyra Oakes, GV 16:38
9. Alicia Lamoutte, La Col 17:30
10. Claudia Perez, La Cum 17:56
11. Taylor Chard, La Col 19:06
12. (La Cum) 20:33
13. Courtney Fredrick, La Cum 21:00
14. Elena Kennedy, La Cum 24:10
SCORING:
1. Goleta Valley 21
2. La Colina (4 runners- 27 pts.)
3. La Cumbre (4 runners- 49 pts.)
