9/20 High School XC Weekend Recap

National High School XC Weekend Recaps (2014)
MileSplit Staff

Woodbridge Cross Country Classic (CA)

September 19, 2014 - September 20, 2014 @ Woodbridge High School in Irvine, CA

 

A lot of hype going into the Woodbridge Classic with many nationally ranked teams and individuals as well as the gauge of where the top teams and individuals stand currently in the pecking order in the great state of California. The US #2 ranked Great Oak girls and US #9 ranked Great Oak boys both lived up to their billing at least by sweeping the top seeded sweepstakes races on Saturday night in Orange County.

The Great Oak girls were led by Destiny Collins, who motored away from some a national class field including the likes of US #13 Marissa Williams (4th, 16:27) and US #17 Dani Jones (2nd, 16:16) to win a time of 16:04 on the three mile course at Woodbridge High School. Sami Ortega of Saugus also ran well for third place in 16:21 and Claire Graves, a sophomore at Citrus Valley, might be a future sweepstakes winner with her fifth place run of 16:31. The US #8 ranked and junior Destiny Collins is gunning for her first California individual state title this fall and more with her national contending Great Oak squad.

Destiny Collins Video Interview

Behind Collins, the Great Oak girls put a total of 5 runners among the top 25 places and not far off a minute spread despite having a national class runner pushing the pace up front. Rounding out their score 5 to give them a total tally of 58 points and put them well ahead of US #5 ranked Desert Vista (107 pts) of Arizona were Kiyeana Beatty (13th, 17:03), Evelyn Mandel (15th, 17:03), Maiya Larsen (22nd, 17:12), and Emily Clause (23rd, 17:16). Only one senior in #4 finisher Larsen among that group as well.

Traveling from Phoenix, the Desert Vista (AZ) girls were able to hold off the US #12 ranked Saugus (CA) girls for the runner-up spot by a mere point with theire team led by the Jones sisters in race runner-up Dani and her sophomore sister Baylee Jones (11th, 16:58) just off the top 10 and also under 17 minutes at Woodbridge. Saugus literally matched up with them in the first two places with their #1 runner Oretaga just behind Dani Jones in 3rd place, while Saugus freshmen Mariah Castillo just missed breaking 17 minutes in 12th place.  

While the Great Oak girls had cross country success to back up their track success over the spring, the Great Oak boys did not have the greatest cross country season and record last fall to justify their high preseason national ranking, but their times on the track were too impressive to overlook. The Woodbridge Classic would be their first major test if they were worthy of the current top 10 ranking. Not only did they prove that, the Great Oak boys might even be a little underranked in the #9 spot after finishing well clear of an outstanding field on Saturday in the boys sweepstakes race. Their team had 3 boys well under 15 minutes and inside the top 20 places with junior Isaac Cortez (7th, 14:17), junior Spencer Dodds (10th, 14:34), and senior Nick Doan (18th, 14:39) and total spread under a minute to help them easily secure the team title with 108 points.

The two other US top 25 ranked Cali teams in the field both finished back in the field with US #14 Madera South in 8th place and US #23 Brea Olinda in 4th place. Finishing ahead of Brea Olinda to round out the top 3 behind Great Oak were Claremont in second with 193 points and Saugus matching their girls in 3rd place as well with 195 points. No one finished ahead at least of Brea Olinda's top runner and US top 10 ranked Austin Tamagno as the junior and 4:06 miler outkicked Arcadia's Phillip Rocha for the win in a smoking time of 14:04, while Rocha likely proved he deserves US top 25 national ranking consideration with his runner-up performance at 14:06. 

Austin Tamagno Video Interview

Much more to come from our on-site meet coverage including race videos, video interviews, and photo galleries from both Friday and Saturday's races.

Friday Highlights at Woodbridge - Arizona flashes fastest times on day

Carlos Villarreal (14:31)

Allie Schadler (17:09)

Back to 9/20 National XC Weekend Recap Central