2016 Brooks Mt. SAC XC InvitationalOct 23, 2016 by Johanna Gretschel
Mt. SAC Full Recap
Mt. SAC Full Recap
Full recap of the 2016 Brooks Mt. SAC XC Invite.
Claudia Lane from Malibu High School continued her unstoppable cross country campaign at the Mt. SAC XC Invitational by winning the D1/D2 Girls Individual Sweepstakes by 40 seconds and setting a new sophomore course record of 16:32.6.
The time appears to be the sixth-fastest in course history, based on archived results from MileSplit and Mt. SAC.edu. Three of the girls ahead of her on the list went on to win an individual national title that year, and one was runner-up.
It is late October, so perhaps it's not entirely out of line to say that the 2015 Great Oak girls and the 2016 squad are... eerily similar.
The Wolfpack easily defended their Mt. SAC D1 Team Sweepstakes title and scored just 38 points with the D1 and D2 teams combined. The four returners from 2015 recorded nearly identical results in both years.
Check out the chart below.
Looks like the Wolfpack is ready to repeat their CIF D1 state title and get back on the podium at NXN.
But the final results behind the U.S. No. 4 ranked team were a little more surprising.
In the combined D1/D2 results, unranked Palos Verdes (105 points) and Claremont (141 points) finished second and third ahead of U.S. No. 13 Arcadia (4th, 158 points) and U.S. No. 5 Davis (5th, 181 points). The most recent California Saucony Flo50 rankings place Palos Verdes at No. 5 and Claremont at No. 4 behind the big three of Great Oak, Davis and Arcadia.
What happened?
Well, Davis' 4-5-6 runners (Abigail Fisk, Charlotte Mitchell, Aniela Mitchell) are somewhat interchangeable based on their results at Stanford and Clovis. At Mt. SAC, the Mitchells did not run and Fisk finished No. 1 for the Blue Devils (17th, 18:05), indicating either a breakthrough for her or that the typical top three (Sofia Castiglioni, Olivia O'Keeffe, Sophia Lodigiani) were holding back.
Arcadia head coach Michael Feraco-Eberle let us know before the race that the Apaches' No. 4, Cindy Liang, would not compete due to a conflict with SAT testing. While Mt. SAC was their breakout race last year, the Apaches seem to be plagued by injuries this fall and defending champion Holly Lung finished just 13th today.
Claremont has looked good all year and even cracked the top 25 for a few weeks before falling slightly after a tough fourth place finish at Roy Griak in Minnesota. Annie Boos led the squad with a 17:53, ninth-place run.
So who is Palos Verdes?
They're very lightly raced, though they dominated the Palos Verdes Invitational. Leader Mazzy Genovese had a breakout race to place fifth in 17:41 and the rest of the top five followed through the line with a 52-second spread and 18:14 three-mile average.
The next Saucony Flo50 national XC rankings come out on Monday, Oct. 31....
Of note: Claremont was crowned the D2 Sweepstakes champion, as Palos Verdes is actually a D3 school and "raced up" in classification.
The Great Oak boys were perfect in 2015: undefeated through the state's top invitationals (including Mt. SAC), CIF State Finals and Nike Cross Nationals. They graduated all except one from their top seven which for many schools would mean a rebuilding year. The Wolfpack was a well-beaten third at the Woodbridge Sweepstakes, but since then won team titles at Stanford and Clovis, and now captured their third straight Mt. SAC D1 Team Sweepstakes title.
The time appears to be the sixth-fastest in course history, based on archived results from MileSplit and Mt. SAC.edu. Three of the girls ahead of her on the list went on to win an individual national title that year, and one was runner-up.
| rank | time | athlete | school | year | post-season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16:00 | Sara Baxter | Simi Valley, CA | 2012 | NXN champion |
| 2 | 16:16 | Amber Trotter | Ukiah, CA | 2001 | Foot Locker Nationals champion |
| 3 | 16:27 | Jordan Hasay | Mission College Prep, CA | 2008 | Foot Locker Nationals champion |
| 4 | 16:28.5 | Fiona O'Keeffe | Davis, CA | 2014 | fourth at NXN |
| 5 | 16:29 | Marie Lawrence | Reno, NV | 2005 | Foot Locker Nationals runner-up |
| 6 | 16:32.6 | Claudia Lane | Malibu, CA | 2016 | ? |
*If you have more information on all-time lists, please shoot me a line at jojo@flosports.tv
Lane looks poised for big things this post-season, as she hardly appeared fazed after the effort.
Lane looks poised for big things this post-season, as she hardly appeared fazed after the effort.
Her training partner, Dustin Hartuv, placed eighth in the Boys D4 Varsity race on Friday afternoon in 16:47, so she said she was confident but unsure how fast she would run. This is the first meet where she has run faster than Hartuv. She said she plans to run her league meet as a tempo and turn up the pace again at CIF Prelims and Finals, then whichever national meet she pursues. She is signed up for Foot Locker West, but may compete at Nike Cross Nationals if invited.
Lane had some company early on from Walnut sophomore Chloe Arriaga --who took second in 17:12-- as both ran through the mile in "about 5:10." But once entering the switchback hills, Lane dropped her counterpart and sped away to the biggest individual win of her career to date.
Full results from D1/D2 individual sweepstakesGreat Oak girls are consistently good, and who is Palos Verdes?!
It is late October, so perhaps it's not entirely out of line to say that the 2015 Great Oak girls and the 2016 squad are... eerily similar.
The Wolfpack easily defended their Mt. SAC D1 Team Sweepstakes title and scored just 38 points with the D1 and D2 teams combined. The four returners from 2015 recorded nearly identical results in both years.
Check out the chart below.
| ATHLETE | 2015 time | 2016 time |
|---|---|---|
| Evelyn Mandel |
17:26 | 17:30.7 |
| Kiyena Beatty |
17:43 | 17:43.6 |
| Nicole Rice |
17:50 | 17:50.8 |
| Sydney Belus |
DNR | 17:54.9 |
| Sandra Pflughoft |
17:55 | 17:59 |
| Devin Ito |
DNR | 18:23.9 |
| Michelle McIntosh |
18:33 | 18:34.9 |
Looks like the Wolfpack is ready to repeat their CIF D1 state title and get back on the podium at NXN.
@GOHSXCTRACK Girls Varsity wins the Sweepstakes race at #mtsacxc pic.twitter.com/SMjeW6vvoN
— Daniel Noble (@dnoble1) October 22, 2016
But the final results behind the U.S. No. 4 ranked team were a little more surprising.
In the combined D1/D2 results, unranked Palos Verdes (105 points) and Claremont (141 points) finished second and third ahead of U.S. No. 13 Arcadia (4th, 158 points) and U.S. No. 5 Davis (5th, 181 points). The most recent California Saucony Flo50 rankings place Palos Verdes at No. 5 and Claremont at No. 4 behind the big three of Great Oak, Davis and Arcadia.
What happened?
Well, Davis' 4-5-6 runners (Abigail Fisk, Charlotte Mitchell, Aniela Mitchell) are somewhat interchangeable based on their results at Stanford and Clovis. At Mt. SAC, the Mitchells did not run and Fisk finished No. 1 for the Blue Devils (17th, 18:05), indicating either a breakthrough for her or that the typical top three (Sofia Castiglioni, Olivia O'Keeffe, Sophia Lodigiani) were holding back.
Arcadia head coach Michael Feraco-Eberle let us know before the race that the Apaches' No. 4, Cindy Liang, would not compete due to a conflict with SAT testing. While Mt. SAC was their breakout race last year, the Apaches seem to be plagued by injuries this fall and defending champion Holly Lung finished just 13th today.
Claremont has looked good all year and even cracked the top 25 for a few weeks before falling slightly after a tough fourth place finish at Roy Griak in Minnesota. Annie Boos led the squad with a 17:53, ninth-place run.
So who is Palos Verdes?
They're very lightly raced, though they dominated the Palos Verdes Invitational. Leader Mazzy Genovese had a breakout race to place fifth in 17:41 and the rest of the top five followed through the line with a 52-second spread and 18:14 three-mile average.
The next Saucony Flo50 national XC rankings come out on Monday, Oct. 31....
Of note: Claremont was crowned the D2 Sweepstakes champion, as Palos Verdes is actually a D3 school and "raced up" in classification.
Great Oak boys lost six of seven from 2015, but they've reloaded
Full results from Boys D1/D2 Team SweepstakesThe Great Oak boys were perfect in 2015: undefeated through the state's top invitationals (including Mt. SAC), CIF State Finals and Nike Cross Nationals. They graduated all except one from their top seven which for many schools would mean a rebuilding year. The Wolfpack was a well-beaten third at the Woodbridge Sweepstakes, but since then won team titles at Stanford and Clovis, and now captured their third straight Mt. SAC D1 Team Sweepstakes title.
The win also cements U.S. No. 5 ranked Great Oak's second straight over U.S. No. 10 ranked Claremont. In the combined D1/D2 results, Great Oak scored 54 points to Claremont's 147 points. Though times were slower in 2016 compared to 2015 --Great Oak's average was 15:20 this year compared to 14:57 last year-- the race was overall slower this year as the winning time was 15:05, which would have placed ninth in 2015. The Wolfpack was also tighter: Jacob Korgan (6th, 15:11), Carlos Carvajal (15:14), Justin Eipp (15:21),Solomon Fountain (15:24) and Ryan Shields (15:33) boasted a 22-second top five spread, nearly half of last year's 45-second spread at Mt. SAC.
I'd say that Great Oak is "back," but with head coach Doug Soles at the helm, I don't think they ever really went anywhere.
Watch Great Oak win their third straight D1 Team Sweepstakes title:I'd say that Great Oak is "back," but with head coach Doug Soles at the helm, I don't think they ever really went anywhere.