Wildcats varsity girls win Flat SAC Invitational, boys finish second

The Whitney High Wildcats competed with a number of other local area teams at the Flat SAC Invitational at Gibson Ranch Regional Park last Saturday where the varsity girls and JV boys finished first while the varsity boys and JV girls came in second. "Working together as a team and for the team takes not only time and effort but a different mindset," coach Jerry Dodge said. "Our runners have embraced the team approach, both in training and in racing, resulting in noticeable improvement not just in getting faster individually and as a unit but in how to race." For the girls, the Kopec sisters were the top two Wildcats as junior Katie finished third overall with a time of 18:13 and sophomore Ava was roughly a minute behind in 11th-place out of 100 runners. Sophomore Grace Scott rounded out the Top 20 overall coming in at 20:02 in the 5k race. The JV boys' team was led by sophomores Joel Tajiri and Noah Lopez, who were three seconds apart and the top two overall in the race. Fellow sophomores David Hurren and Brendan Whitmore finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at 17:49. The JV girls had senior Ashlyn Fujioka and junior Ashanti Elie lead the way as both finished in the Top 5 while junior Mateo Delgadillo came in eighth for the varsity boys at 16:25. Whitney will race in the Sierra Foothill League Championships on Friday before traveling to Angels Camp for subsections next Saturday. Every team for the Wildcats finished Top 3 at the first league meet on Sept. 22. The varsity girls will have to beat out Granite Bay High, who are currently ranked third in the state in Division II after finishing fifth at the Clovis Invitational on Oct. 9. Del Oro High is also second in the state for Division III. The Rocklin Thunder had multiple individuals finish inside the Top 20 in their races at the meet. Senior Cole Toumajian came in 17th out of 107 runners with a time of 17:01. "Since it's my last season, I think about how I only have three races left in my career and that motivates me to really leave it all out there because I don't want to regret anything when it's over," Toumajian said. Rocklin High finished eighth out of 16 teams for the varsity boys and came third in the JV girls' race. Sophomore Jesse Redding finished 18th in the varsity girls' race and fellow sophomore Mayank Shekhar was 29th out of 95 runners for the JV boys. The West Park Panthers were second out of nine teams in the 2.25 mile frosh/soph boys' race, having sophomores Ryan Jackson and Kaleb Krafka finish inside the Top 20. They had other solid performances from sophomore Kaelana Selin, who finished 11th out of 80 runners in the frosh/soph girls race, and sophomore Noah Forsyth coming 14th out of 125 runners in the varsity boys' event. "Each athlete has made impressive gains in both speed and stamina and they are eager to work hard toward their goals each week," coach Sonya Hale said. "This team is an incredible group of young people. They work and play hard, cheer for each other relentlessly and show up as the best versions of themselves every single day." The Panthers will race in the Foothill Valley League finals on Saturday. Western Sierra Collegiate Academy came in ninth in the varsity boys' event as sophomores Graham Martin and Ryan Trieu were 19th and 34th, respectively. John Adams Academy in Roseville also ran at the invitational, finishing eighth in the frosh/soph boys race. Freshman Mikele Jopson raced in the varsity girls' event, coming in 13th out of 81 runners with a time of 20:42. Oakmont's Hirsch wins varsity girls race at Mt. SAC Invitational The Oakmont Vikings traveled to Southern California last weekend to race at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut where the varsity girls were fifth out of 13 teams and senior Mia Hirsch won the 5k event with a time of 19:04, 33 seconds ahead of anyone else. "We take our athletes there each year for an experience they will remember," coach Ryan Nugent said. "Traveling and going to the beach with their teammates are all things that bring smiles and positive memories to kids that have had so much disappointment and change over the last year-plus." Freshmen Dominic Siino and John Carlson both performed well, finishing 29th and 32nd, respectively, in the freshman race while freshman Emily Richardson cracked the Top 30 in the three-mile JV girls' event. "We started this season with one of the most inexperienced teams I've ever coached and they've come a long way already," Nugent said. Roseville races at Wildfire Invitational The Tigers traveled to Foresthill to compete in the Wildfire Invitational on Oct. 16 with many good race times from the varsity boys and the frosh/soph girls. Junior Alexander Vigil was 18th out of 110 runners as Roseville came in ninth out of 15 teams for the varsity boys. Freshmen Rebeca Brincovan and Grace Phillips, along with sophomore Juliana Meadows-Yaw, all finished inside the Top 20 for the frosh/soph girls and the Tigers were third out of four teams. Roseville raced in the Capital Valley Conference Finals on Thursday and will compete at the Sac-Joaquin Subsections next Saturday.