PHS Cross Country Wins Big At Champs

Wednesday, October 27th was a perfect day for running. The afternoon sun warmed the breezy, cool day up at Sierra College in Rocklin. There, the Golden Empire League’s Cross Country teams ran their third and final league meet, the championship.

Sierra College’s course was beautiful, with trees, streams, and other natural beauty. Runners were provided with shade for most of their track. However, the course was very hilly, more so than any course the team had previously run. It proved to be an added challenge to the miles-long races the athletes were already set to run.

The Frosh-Soph (Freshmen and Sophomores) boys started off the day, and ran exceptionally well. All three of the competitors hit their best times of the season. In fact, Tristan Lepe (10) and Nano Balangue (9) shaved a whole two minutes off their previous best times and Max Vasquez (10) ran one minute faster than his old time.

Our Frosh-Soph girls also performed extremely well. Like the boys, each and every one of the girls hit their personal records. Maddy Rambone (10) and Xitlali Gama-Solorio (9) got three minutes faster than their previous bests, and Cynthia Rodriguez (9) and Elizabeth Davis (9) took one minute off of their fastest times.

When Cross Country races can come down to the wire with times as close as fractions of seconds between two places taking entire minutes off of a time is an incredible achievement. More impressive is that this was done on one of the hardest courses yet.

One of the most exciting races of the day, maybe of the season, was the Varsity Girls. At the past two meets, they did well enough to win first place both times. Wednesday’s meet gave them the opportunity to be league champions. Keziah Maldonado-Lemus (9) rolled in at third place, followed by Brianna Parker (10) in fourth. Gina Huxsoll (10) strode in at eleventh place, with Naomi Tamene (9) and Isabella Duarte (10) wrapping up in thirteenth and seventeenth place respectively. Because they finished in the top ten places, Keziah and Brianna are All-League runners.

However, the excitement did not stop with those five. As Ayana Castro (12) neared the finish line, she was neck and neck with another racer from Mira Loma. While they traded front placements mere yards up to the finish, Ayana blasted past in the last few seconds to thunderous cheers and applause from Pioneer and other spectators as she crossed, winning the sprint-off. Soon after, Kaylee Howard (11) rolled in faster than she has all season, setting a new personal record.

With these placements, the girls won the League Championship! Team scores are calculated by the team’s top five runners’ placement, so if any Pioneers fastest five had slipped further down, they could have lost the title, which was increasingly likely, with Mira Loma’s score getting very close in second place.

Finishing off the day were the Varsity Boys. With stiff competition, they took an overall team score of fourth. Regardless, each boy had one of their best runs. In fact, Mason Rowe (12) took tenth place, making him an All-League runner.

Now that the season is over, the team is looking forward to attending Subsections on November 6th, the first meet in their path to playoffs. There, they will compete to qualify for Sections, which is the meet that narrows it down to State.

With a strong showing at their last meet of the season, the mostly young team has an incredibly bright future ahead!