Culver City High Cross Country Teams Finish Strong in Ocean League Finals

Last Thursday, Nov. 3, the Ocean League Finals were held on a sunny but breezy afternoon atop the Kenneth Hahn State Park in Baldwin Hills.

Even though Beverly Hills and Santa Monica were once again battling for league supremacy and Beverly Hills came out on top in both the boys and girls varsity races, the surprise outcome of the meet was the Centaurs' great run. Under the supervision of coach Tom Fritzius, numerous Centaur runners came in with personal course records (PCR). One of the better finishes was by sophomore Sage Sims-Bleser, who trimmed more than three minutes off of her previous best time on the very hilly course—most noted for its long, steep finishing climb. It is fittingly called “Suicide Hill.”

Senior Cody Lewis ran the tough course in a personal course record (PCR) time of 18:12 and finished ninth overall.  Senior Jeffery Asai ran a 19:04 (PCR) and finished 15^th in the field of 41 runners. Sophomore Robert Oliver, hindered by a nagging knee injury, finished next with a 19:24. Junior Evan McNally and Senior Sho Harikawa finished 18^th and 19^th respectively with times of 19:43 and 19:47. Alternates Junior Robert Heyl and Jonanthan Moniz finished 22^nd and 28^th.

Cody Lewis, the boys team captain, felt “good” about his run, saying, “This race was crazy. There was a lot of good competition running out there. About a mile and a half into the race, I got a cramp. I thought my race was over, but I pushed through it. I ran with a pack of guys and I finished.  Coach Tom always offers a lot of encouragement—just really good vibes. The team is good and Coach Tom is doing an amazing job.”

Robert Oliver noted, “It seemed worse than the first time because I hurt my knee a few weeks ago. I’ve been icing it. It’s fun training under Coach Tom. He lets us do what we feel like we can do. There are drills we do, though. We jog for a couple of minutes and then we sprint for 20 seconds. We do this ten times. Then we take a five-minute break. We do this routine three times.”

Jonathan Moniz was happy about his personal course record: “It was hot out there, but not as bad as before. Suicide Hill seemed longer and steeper than I remembered. It was kind of fun out there today. Training under Coach Tom is interesting. There’s a lot of training and a lot of work on hills. It makes us better runners.”

Senior Inez Alavarez led the Centaur varsity girls with a time of 23:12 and finished 11^th overall in the field of 35 runners. The next Centaur finisher was Sophomore Akela Morinaka at 24:04. Sage Sims-Bleser, Tayler Rodriguez, Esmeralda Sandoval, Lauren Kelly and Jasmine Dimeo finished 18^th through 22^nd, all within a minute of each other.

After catching her breath, Inez Alvarez commented on her performance, saying, “I tried to start off smooth because this is such a hilly course. I wanted to take it easy for the hills. I felt good during the race; I guess it was just my day. Suicide Hill was pretty tough, but I managed to run the whole thing.”

Skylar Kim, Kevin Liu, Kevin Cortez, Imanuel Chen, Sam Capoli, Steven Kakehashi and Taj Carter competed at the Junior Varsity level.

The Junior Varsity Girls team was represented by Emma Juncosa, Logan Kim, Hirari Watanabe and Violeta Rodriguez.