El Dorado boys advance to States

Fast course yields quick times

FOLSOM — Clear skies, crisp temperatures and a compacted course resulted in very fast racing at Saturday’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Cross-Country Championships at Willow Hills course near Folsom High School for the El Dorado, Union Mine and Golden Sierra squads. Several of the county’s top runners ran personal bests in qualifying for the California State Meet Nov. 24 in Fresno.

“Every single one of our 27 kids ran a PR (personal record) in the final meet of the season. This is absolutely unheard of,” El Dorado coach Peanut Harms said.

As advertised, the boys Division III race — with three of the top 10 D-III teams in the state — did not disappoint the fans in providing the closest team race of the day with Placer taking first with 65 points followed by El Dorado (69) and Will C. Wood of Vacaville scoring 71.

“Our top five averaged 25 second improvements and I believed that would be good enough to win but Placer ran their best race of the year so hats off to them and Will C. Wood. We get another shot at them at state,” Harms said.

Sean Gregg ran another superb race to finish third while leading the Cougars to the state meet slot.

As projected, the girls D-III race was a total dogfight with Del Oro edging out Vista del Lago for the championship’ Del Oro had 45 points and Vista 47. The battle for the third and final qualifying place was up for grabs right up until the final 400 meters with Rio Americano edging El Dorado, 116 and 119 respectively.

“We knew we had to make up 30 points (from Sub Sections) and we made up 27. All of our girls ran great, set personal bests and unfortunately came up short. A great effort for a great group of kids,” El Dorado coach Tena Harms said.

The Cougars’ Anne Donegan qualified for the state meet as an individual while finishing 10th overall with another huge personal best at 19:42. In the sophomore division races, Ethan Reeder was the individual champion while pacing his team to a dominating 32-point victory.

“The coaches had us write down our race plans and I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I was just happy to lead my team to the section championship. We are going to be good for a while,” Reeder said.

Freshman Arianna Pizzuti was the top girls Frosh/Soph runner for the Cougars taking the third spot with a 35 second personal best.

Union Mine’s two top runners, Allison Babbage and Makana Kauhaahaa, both qualified with fifth and fourth places, respectively, in the D-IV races. Each D’back that raced achieved a PR.

In the D-IV sophomore boys race, Golden Sierra took second place with 56 points as Hunter Hughes, Ryan Sewell, Tristan Rollins, Alan Nicholson and Stanley Marciel were part of that group. For the girls, Bailey Borello competed in the JV girls D-III-IV-V.

Below are the individual times.

D-III varsity girls (El Dorado, 4th place, 119 points) 
11-Anne Donegan, ED, 19:42; 14-Kaitlyn Staggers, ED, 20:12; 31-Chelsea Chestnut, ED, 21:07; 39-Caillan Bower, ED, 21:28; 43-Katherine Buethe, ED,21:44; 49-Celina Vicencio, ED, 21:56; 50-Regan Hester, ED, 21:57;

D-III varsity boys (El Dorado, 2nd place, 69 points) 
3-Sean Gregg, ED, 16:05; 9-Boone Bates, ED, 16:21; 19-Ryan Gray, ED, 16:46; 24-Charlie Planondon, ED, 16:57; 25-Ian Janoska, ED, 16:57; 32-Jay Revolinsky, ED, 17:12; 41-Stabler Young, ED, 17:34.

D-IV varsity girls
4-Allison Babbage, UM, 20:02.

D-IV varsity boys (Union Mine, 9th place, 192 points) 
4-Makana Kauhaahaa, UM, 16:46; 36-William Winter, UM, 18:00; 42-Troy Maxfield1, UM, 18:09; 65-Spencer Nelson, UM, 19:12; 67-Aaron Jonas, UM, 19:14; 72-Kevin Ralphs, UM, 19:58; 73-Adam Benouar, UM, 20:04.

D-III frosh/soph girls (El Dorado, 4th place, 90 points)
3-Arianna Pizzuti, ED, 13:47; 21-Karla Reyes, ED, 14:42; 26-Morgan Linville, ED, 15:05; 34-Rosie Winslow, ED, 15:44; 38-Marissa Garcia, ED, 16:13.

D-III frosh/soph boys (El Dorado, 1st place, 40 points) 
1-Ethan Reeder, ED, 11:35; 5-Jackson Harris, ED, 11:55; 14-Michael Segura, ED, 12:24; 15-Grant Seely, ED, 12:26; 18-Joel Kaderka, ED, 12:31; 29-Liam Drennan, ED, 12:48; 34-John Capps, ED, 12:55.

JV girls D-III-IV-V
10-Bailey Borello, GS, 23:06.

D-IV sophomore boys (Golden Sierra, 2nd place, 56 points)
1-Hunter Hughes, 12:02; 2-Ryan Sewell, 12:11; 6-Tristan Rollins, 12:25; 29-Alan Nicholson, 13:27; 32-Stanley Marciel, GS, 13:34.