Sea Hawk Girls Take Third Without Top Runners

The Redondo girls varsity placed third at the 30^th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic this weekend without the aid of their top five runners.

A few days before this 200 team invitational meet in Costa Mesa, Head Coach Bob Leetch made the decision to hold out a number of top runners in order to "train-through" this weekend, and be better prepared for the first of the three Bay League cross country meets scheduled for this Sept. 23. This strategy allowed three Junior Varsity girls to move up and gain valuable varsity experience in a major-race setting.

And "move up" they did. Sophomores and veteran varsity runners Kayla Ferron took 9^th, followed by Anique Villaga in 12^th and Alexis Thibodeau in 22^nd. Sophomore Elizabeth del la Torre placed 58^th, with seniors Pammie Sherman in 87^th and Olivia Loveland in 99^th, rounding out the six-girl squad.

The ability of a team made up mostly of JV runners and non-scoring varsity runners, to place this high in a cross country meet of this caliber speaks well of the Redondo girls program.

Their score of 186 points put them behind local Bay League rival West Torrance, which won the team title with 91 points, and perennial powerhouse Great Oak, which scored 126 points.

The boys freshman team was handed its first defeat of the season by Burbank in a close 152 to 159 race. In cross country races of this size, seven points can easily be a matter of just a few seconds difference between the 4^th or 5^th runners on a team. This particular race was comprised of 324 runners on 26 teams. Redondo's Will Tait placed 15^th in 17:10, followed by Tomohiro Yamaya in 22^nd and Takahiro Yamaya in 30^th.

Normally part of the scoring team, Tanner Childs was forced to drop out of the race shortly after the first mile due to a knee injury. Ryan Keliher, a second valued Sea Hawk injured during the race, was determined to go the distance. Reduced to walking the last few hundred yards, he managed to limp across the finish line.

South Bay neighbors, and Bay League rivals, West Torrance placed 12^th in team competition with 356 points, and Mira Costa landed in 24^th with 538 points.

The Redondo boys varsity team, minus star front-man Tyler Caracoza, ran in the Rated Varsity Boys race. Unlike the other races, the Rated races combine runners from all CIF divisions and give the top-rated teams an opportunity to compete against schools they normally would never face.

Placing 22^nd, even without Caracoza, was not the performance they were expecting. However, this is a young team that includes six runners with no prior varsity experience. Their preparation will be put to the test this season at each of the three up-coming Bay League cross country meets. The Bay League is widely regarded as one of the toughest cross country leagues in the state, consistently producing multiple top 10 CIF and State Championship teams each year.