The Scoop: Historic Meet Performances Live Up To The Hype


Young Twins, Thomsen And Intriguing Team Storylines Highlight Clovis

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Perhaps the most anticipated moment of this mid-point in the cross country season came on Saturday morning at the ASICS Clovis XC Invitational.

The true, all-out season debut for the Young twins. 

And sure enough, the showing from the top-ranked athletes on the MileSplit50 list lived up to the hype.

Leo Young and Lex Young of Newbury Park went 1-2 in the boys championship race at Clovis, with Leo winning in 14:25.9 and Lex crossing the line not too far behind in 14:31.7.

Leo's winning time fell just short of the Woodward Park record of 14:24.00 set by German Fernandez back in 2007. It did, however, make for a course personal best for Leo, surpassing his previous PR of 14:28.00 on the course from the California state meet last season.

The Young twin sweep of the top two podium spots propelled Newbury Park to a dominate win in the team race, recording 40 total points.

In fact, Newbury Park put three uniforms across the line before any other team put their top runner through thanks to Aaron Sahlman's 14:52.4 finish for third. 

Brayden Seymour and Dev Doshi rounded out the squad's top five, running 15:34.9 and 15:37.2, respectively.

Overall, Newbury Park went 1-2-3-23-25-67-87 en route to the boys team title.


The girls championship race, on the other hand, unfolded in a fashion far from expected, as late drop-outs from the field due to illness opened up both the team and individual races.

Both Ventura's Sadie Engelhardt and members of the top-ranked Buchanan (CA) squad pulled out before the race, reportedly dealing with cold symptoms, according to MileSplit California. With the top-seeded Engelhardt no longer competing, it was Hanne Thomsen (Montgomery) who took control halfway through and won in 17:04.2, over 20-seconds ahead of second-place finisher Gioana Lopizzo (La Costa Canyon).

The girls team battle similarly took a turn, as the favorite Buchanan ended up only scoring four runners in total. But Los Altos (CA) put together quite a race by placing two racers in the top 20, including a team best 10th-place overall finish from Lauren Soobrian. 93 points and an 18:26 team average proved unmatchable, beating out other top teams like JSerra Catholic (CA) in second and Newbury Park in third.

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