A healthy JSerra girls cross country team is a winning cross country team.
Unlike at the Woodbridge Classic a couple of weeks earlier, JSerra had a full roster of runners available for this past Saturday the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, N.C.
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The Lions won the team championship in the meet’s elite division, the Girls 5,000m COROS Race of Champions.
They were led by the ninth-place finish of Reese Holley. The senior, who this week committed to North Carolina, finished the 5,000-meters race in 17 minutes, 27.5 seconds. That set the girls cross country school record for 5,000 meters.
In the Woodbridge Classic last month, JSerra was missing Holley and other runners because of illness. The Lions, who have won five straight CIF State championships, still managed a third-place finish in the elite race.
Cross country times vary and can be evaluated differently because cross country courses are different. Some have asphalt, some are all dirt, some have grass, some have hills of various height and grades and some do not.
JSerra cross country coach Chase Frazier said the Great American meet course is a difficult one.
“It’s not a flat course at all,” Frazier said. “There is one part that goes down hill and then it goes uphill after that for 600 meters. It’s one of the toughest courses I’ve seen.”
Plus it was warm and humid, Frazier said. And that race began at 6:50 a.m. That’s a challenge, too, for a team coming from the Pacific time zone where it was 3:50 a.m. at race time.
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JSerra was leading the team scoring for the first third of the race, fell behind in the second third of the race and finished strong to get the team title. Two team members vomited during the race but finished the race.
Lions sophomore Maya Pawlowicz, was 17th at 17:46.2. JSerra senior Hutton Nelligan was 40th at 18:17.8.
“I was really proud of how our team ran out there,” Frazier said.
JSerra will next compete in the Orange County Championships on Oct. 17 at Oak Canyon Park in Silverado. The Lions won the meet’s girls team sweepstakes race last season. Woodbridge won the boys sweepstakes team championship at last year’s Orange County Championships.
NOTES
Woodbridge senior Aidan Antonio finished 10th at the Great American meet in the boys championships division. His time was 14:55.60. …
Beckman won the boys and girls the sweepstakes team championships in the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach this past Saturday. Beckman junior Jacob Franco was the third-place finisher in the boys sweepstakes race at 14:52.6 with Beckman senior Ryan Barris fifth at 14:55.5. Huntington Beach senior Rebecca Van Peteghen finished first in the girls sweepstakes race at 17:16.40. …
In the Laguna Hills Invitational in late September, San Clemente senior Yohan Anderson finished first in the Championship Boys race to lead his team to that division’s team championship. Aliso Niguel junior Nadia Bonfanti finished second in the Championship Girls competition. …
The Mt. SAC Invitational at Mt. San Antonio College is Oct. 24. The CIF Southern Section finals are at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 23.
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