Irvine is not at an elevation of 8,000 feet like Mammoth.
But training in Mammoth just might help Aidan Antonio on Saturday night in Irvine.
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The Woodbridge senior and his teammates on the school’s cross country team trained in Mammoth for this season. Cross country runners often train at a high elevation to increase stamina and lung capacity. Athletes in other sports, including boxers, have done so also.
Antonio, last year’s Orange County boys cross country runner of the year, is ready for the Woodbridge Classic meet that that will be held at Irvine’s Great Park on Friday and Saturday.
It is a huge meet in terms of the number of competitors and prestige.
Antonio finished fifth in the Woodbridge Classic’s elite race, the sweepstakes race, last year.
Fifth place is a great accomplishment, but Antonio has trained to do better this year.
“I think my experience is going to show,” he said this week. “I’m really excited.”
He recently did a run in Albuquerque during a recruiting visit to the University of New Mexico. The city’s altitude is 5,312 feet.
Today’s high school athletes talk a lot about the importance of sleep, a topic they rarely mentioned 20 years ago. Antonio is big on sleep and has added a new aspect to his training regimen – two steams a week in a sauna.
“I read some research that a sauna will help develop red blood cells,” he said. “High-altitude training does the same thing.”
Red blood cell production improves the flow of oxygen to the muscles and the brain. Antonio also has increased his weekly running mileage from the 50s to the 60s.
Woodbridge cross country coach Bryan Pacheco said Antonio is a hard worker who doesn’t look like he’s working hard.
“Aidan is very consistent in his training and he still makes everything look easy,” Pacheco said. “We’ll be doing a really hard workout, and everyone’s struggling to get through it and here he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m just here to do this workout.’”
The Woodbridge Classic certainly is not a workout.
The meet has more than 650 teams entered from 19 states. The Doug Speck Boys Sweepstakes race includes Orange County traditional powers like Beckman, last year’s CIF State Division I runner-up San Clemente and Woodbridge, which finished second to Jesuit in last year’s CIF State Division II championships. Jesuit, of Carmichael, also is entered in the Speck sweepstakes race.
The Bob Day Girls Sweepstakes race brings in last year’s CIF State Division III champion El Toro, always-deep JSerra, which was last year’s CIF State Division IV champ, and Santa Margarita.
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Those are only a few of the teams entered in what trails perhaps only CIF Southern Section and CIF State meets in quality of runners and teams.
The Woodbridge Classic starts Friday at 5 p.m. with a “Novice Boys” race and continues through the evening with boys and girls lower-level and some boys and girls varsity races.
The meet continues Saturday, starting at 7:30 a.m. with a senior boys race and continues until 11 a.m. After a long afternoon break racing resumes ay 3:50 p.m. until the big sweepstakes races: the girls sweepstakes at 9:34 p.m. followed by the boys sweepstakes at 9:54 p.m.
Antonio confirmed that it is a well-lit course.
The Woodbridge Classic website – WoodbridgeClassic.com – offers a course map, parking information and more. Parking must be purchased in advance at the meet’s website. Parking cannot be purchased on site on Friday or Saturday.
Links to live results and live streaming will be available at WoodbridgeClassic.com. There will be 15 food trucks on site.
Antonio continued his excellent junior year after the Woodbridge Classic. He finished first in the Orange County Championships at Irvine Regional Park, was the CIF Southern Section Division 2 champion and finished third in the CIF State finals.
He loves the Woodbridge Classic.
“It’s a great course at a great facility,” he said. “I was playing flag football in third grade at Great Park, so I’ve kind of grown up there. I’m technically the top returning runner for this meet so it would be great for me and the community if Woodbridge can win the team championship this year.”
NOTES
• The Durango Fall Classic girls volleyball tournament is Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas. Among the teams in it are Mater Dei, Sierra Canyon, Huntington Beach, Long Beach Poly, Los Alamitos, Rocklin, Newport Harbor and Harvard-Westlake. Sierra Canyon, which beat Mater Dei in last season’s CIF-SS Division 1 final and then lost to Mater Dei in the CIF Southern California Regional finals, is ranked No. 1 in the MaxPreps.com national rankings that have Mater Dei at No. 2 in the nation. …
• Many Orange County football teams play their final nonleague games this week, then take their bye week next week before beginning league play Oct. 1 and 2. A few good nonleague games are on next week’s schedule, including Trabuco Hills at El Modena. …
• Among the many fine league-opening football games in two weeks are: Cypress-Pacifica at Bolsa Grande High in the Iota League; La Habra at Capistrano Valley in the Bravo League; Corona del Mar vs. Villa Park at El Modena High in the Bravo League; Crean Lutheran at Tustin in the Bravo League; Yorba Linda at San Clemente in the Alpha League; Servite vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College in the Trinity League; and the big popper in Mater Dei vs. Santa Margarita at Saddleback College in the Trinity League. …
• The Tustin-Villa Park Bravo League football game will be played at SoFi Stadium on Oct. 15. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. …
• JSerra, Orange County;s No. 1-ranked boys water polo team, is in the loaded South Coast Tournament this week at Newport Harbor High. Also in the tournament are No. 2 Newport Harbor and No. 5 Corona del Mar. San Diego’s Cathedral Catholic is seed No. 1 for the tournament. …
• Three Orange County girls flag football teams advanced to the final four of this past weekend’s MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown tournament in Chula Vista. Newport Harbor defeated Sunset League rival Huntington Beach, 8-7, in one semifinal and JSerra beat Merced, 27-0 in the other semifinal. National No. 1-ranked JSerra defeated Newport Harbor, 21-6, in the tournament championship game. The Lions takes an 18-0 record into Friday’s game at Corona del Mar.
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