By: Jeff George for California MileSplit

Even among large, two-day invitationals, Mt. SAC stands out. Most meets of similar stature have some races Friday night and then the remainder on Saturday, but not this one - action starts at 10:30 on Friday morning and runs all day, then resumes at 7:15 on Saturday morning for another full day! Only sundown can stop this meet, as the schedule ends around 6 PM both days. All told, there are 412 schools entered in this year's Mt. SAC XC Invitational, which makes for a whopping total of 109 races combined!

With so many races and with all entries based on team, not individual, some of the top runners inevitably end up spread out and don't get to race each other. Although that sometimes denies us individual match-ups that would be fun to watch, this is definitely the time of year when team success comes to the forefront, as the top squads are positioning themselves for the upcoming championship season. And besides, we can always do a massive set of combined results on Sunday to see how all the individuals stack up!

FRIDAY BOYS SWEEPS

Division 3

Last year, Austin Tamagno raced in the Saturday morning Sweepstakes, but this time around he and his Brea Olinda teammates are entered for the Division 3 Sweeps on Friday night. In that race, the Wildcats will be heavy favorites to win over Baldwin Park. Tamagno should get some competition from Salvador Capetillo, the #1 runner for the Braves. The Brea Olinda senior is the course record holder at Mt. SAC (14:23) from last season, and no doubt will be racing the clock again in 2015. Tamagno was sixth at the Foot Locker Championships as a junior, and enters this weekend ranked #2 in the Saucony Flo50. 

Watch Tamagno break Diego Mercado and Ammar Moussa Mt. SAC course record:
 

Division 4

Andrew Burkhardt (JSerra) may end up pushing himself in this race, as his 3 Mile PR is almost 30 seconds better than his closest competitor. The chase pack could be very interesting, though - look for Trent Robinett and Donald Leedy to be joined by Moses Bojorquez, who has the best 5K time aside from Burkhardt. Also, don't be surprised if Santiago Hardy of Chinle (AZ) is right in the middle of that group. Chinle also has the best combination of 5K times overall in the race, while another Arizona team, Page, grades out as the best using 3 Mile times. Either way you slice it, though, they're both going to have to get past a solid McFarland team to win this race.

Division 5

Ironically, the division with the smallest schools may give us the most interesting individual race on Friday. There are three legit contenders in this race, and the pre-meet order depends on which distance you prefer to look at. Jack Van Scoter (Flintridge Prep) has the fastest 3 Mile time, but Cooper Teare (St. Joseph Notre Dame) leads when you use 5K as your basis for judgement - and Ben Harper (Trinity) is right there with them! When it comes to the team scores, though, it's a totally different story: Flintridge is the heavy favorite, and it looks like Desert Christian and Xavier College Prep will have to duke it out for 2nd place.

FRIDAY GIRLS SWEEPS

Division 3

The last big race we have for Moorpark's Michelle Magnani was all the way back at Woodbridge, over a month ago. If she has been training hard for all that time, then look out! As it stands, she's already a dominating figure in this race, even with strong runners like Jacquelyn Smith (Palos Verdes) entered. Ashley Lee and Shannon McKellar also have solid races on their resumes, and at the very least they should push Smith for 2nd place. Team-wise, though, this one is totally up in the air; depending on how you look at it, there are as many as 5 teams that could win. South Torranceand La Costa Canyon both have strong team performances at the 5K distance, whereas Esperanza, Moorpark, and Palos Verdes look better in 3 Mile rankings.

 

Division 4

Sienna Santiago (High Tech SD) has had a great season, clocking 18:05 for 5K at Stanford and then breaking 18 in a local meet. She doesn't have a 3 Mile time this season, though, so she doesn't appear in the virtual meet. Santiago is capable of running away with this race, but if anyone is going to push her it should be Devianna Salcedo (McFarland), who DOES have a 3 Mile, and it's really fast.. The team competition could come down to Page (AZ) against Mayfield.

 

Division 5

As was the case on the boys' side, a pair of big talents are running away  in the smallest division, but their individual stories couldn't be more different this season. Gabby Satterlee (Central Valley Christian) is having a monster season, clocking 17:48 at Woodward Park two weekends ago.


Central Valley Christian's Gabby Satterlee leads her squad's powerful 1-2-3 punch into Mt. SAC

On the other hand, Rylee Bowen (Sonoma Academy) hasn't really put up a big time so far this fall, perhaps because she extended her track season late into the summer. She ran 17:44 here in 2014, though, so this would be a good chance for her to break out. If Bowen doesn't stay with Satterlee, she can still break up the Central Valley Christian 1-2-3 sweep that our virtual meet predicts (Bowen doesn't have a 3 Mile time this season). Will that strength up front be enough to get the Cavaliers past Flintridge Prep?

SATURDAY BOYS SWEEPS

Team Sweepstakes Race

Right now, the Great Oak boys are the team to beat in California, as they have ascended all the way to US #2 through a series of strong performances despite never quite being at full strength. Dana Hills will get another chance to prove that the Dolphins can hang with the Wolfpack (and they were also not at full strength when the two teams met in Clovis a few weeks ago). If the predicted order holds true, with Great Oak and Dana Hills solidly taking the top 2 spots, then there could be a very interesting battle for 3rd. King, West Torrance, and Arcadia all have serious championship season aspirations, and a strong showing here could catapult one of those squads to greater heights.

The Great Oak boys bring their #2 national ranking to the Mt. SAC switchbacks

With Austin Tamagno taking the ACT and consequently opting to run Friday, we don't get to see the matchup between him and Phillip Rocha (Arcadia). Does that mean Rocha will go unchallenged? Certainly not - with Eduardo Herrera (Madera South), Spencer Dodds (Great Oak), and Tyler Janes (King) in the race, there will be no shortage of competition. You can also factor in Michael Vernau (Davis), Dylan Scarsone (Canyon Anaheim Hills), and Jack Landgraf (Dana Hills), among others - what a lead pack! With that push behind him, can Rocha threaten the all-time course record of 14:24? Even going under 14:30 would put him in the top 5 and cement his place in history - and of course, he will be back again later this year. (And remember, Rocha doesn't have a super-fast 3 Mile time yet this year, so he doesn't show in the virtual meet for that distance; expect that to change this weekend!)

Arcadia's Phillip Rocha has been on fire to start the 2015 XC season

INDIVIDUAL SWEEPSTAKES

In all the hubbub over the two meets we covered on-site last weekend, plus a flood of stats from all over the state, I almost missed arguably the best performance of them all: Paul Luevano's huge 14:16 3 Mile at the Bell Gardens Invitational. The most impressive thing about the Venice senior's race? He won by 22 seconds, pushing himself to a time drop of 20 seconds from his 2014 performance. Will that give him enough confidence to get past Luis Grijalva? The Armijo senior has run well this season, and is within a hair's width of breaking through to sub-15 land. It will be interesting to see how Ayala's Steven Khan stacks up against the competition here; after opening with a big win at the Great Cow Run, he has struggled just a bit to replicate that level of performance. Likewise for Jorge Suarez (Santa Ana), who has shown flashes of brilliance but hasn't put it all together in a big race yet. There are several strong teams in this race, as well, including El Toro, Ayala, Saugus, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

SATURDAY GIRLS SWEEPS

Team Sweepstakes Race

An injured Destiny Collins struggled to a 45th place finish at Mt. SAC in 2014. Can she redeem herself against defending champion Fiona O'Keeffe in 2015?

Great Oak's girls will be well-motivated this week after falling from their US #1 perch, and this is an excellent event for a statement race. Don't be surprised if Destiny Collins and company come out with all guns blazing on Saturday morning and look to put the hurt on some of California's best teams. That includes a Davis squad that also has aspirations of going to NXN, as well as a group from Arcadia that has been very impressive so far. Saugus is also lurking as a potential top-3 team here, and this would be just the right time of the season for the Centurions to let everyone know they're not going away. If you're looking for sleeper teams, consider Serrano (which has been relatively quiet all year) as well as Trabuco Hills, fresh off an upset win at the OC Champs.

We're getting the match-up that we thought we would see two weekends ago, and the extra waiting has us even more anxious to see the outcome! If you can find one weakness in the nearly immaculate season that Fiona O'Keeffe (Davis) is having - I mean, her 5K time is better than her 3 Mile! - it would be that her two 5K's have been on flatter, faster courses. Collins, on the other hand, has run at the very difficult Eagle Island State Park in Idaho for the Bob Firman Invite, and that might give her some advantage on the challenging Mt. SAC hills. The last time they raced, Collins pulled away to win the CIF 3200 title, but that was over 4 months ago!

Defending Mt. SAC team sweepstakes individual champion Fiona O'Keeffe 

There should also be a very heated competition among the members of the chase pack, who will be battling for third unless something unusual happens. Evelyn Mandel has been the revelation for Great Oak this season, and she should be pushed to limit by Nicole Zielinski (Canyon Anaheim Hills) and Holly Lung (Arcadia). Mariah Castillo (Saugus) and Sofia Castiglioni (Davis), who's having a stellar season of her own, are also likely to be in that first big group at the front of this race. Don't be too surprised if either Glennis Murphy (Redwood) or Ashley Licata (Capistrano Valley) makes a bid for the top 5 - both had strong races here in 2014.

INDIVIDUAL SWEEPSTAKES

Amanda Gehrich won't dominate this race the way she did at the OC Championships last weekend. The Tesoro senior will have her hands full with a number of top-flight runners, from Kelly Byrnd (Canyon Crest) to Mikayla Sodersten (Clovis). In between those two on the virtual meet, you can find a virtual who's who of the best runners in SoCal, including Claire Graves (Citrus Valley), Candela Fernandez (Burbank), and Cassi Durgy (Huntington Beach). Freshman Chloe Arriaga (Walnut) is an intruiging wild card after running 17:00 at Bell Gardens, but Mt. SAC is a very different course from the two 3 Milers she has run. Another interesting runner: Emily Virtue (Burroughs) started off the season with a big time at the Great Cow Run, but since then she has not posted another performance that is quite as impressive. I'm particularly interested to see how Fernandez races here; she has struggled this year, but this is the site of two of her best performances from 2014 (she finished 2nd in this race).



Canyon Crest appears to have the edge in the team scores, but Mira Costa is also quite strong, and it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see Monte Vista or Rancho Bernardo in the mix, either.