By Heather Carr, Staff Writer
Storm clouds loomed over the Central Park course last Saturday as the Fountain Valley cross-country team warmed up over the damp grass and asphalt to prepare for their most significant race of the year: The Sunset League Finals.
Though the Barons faced high competition from the other schools in the league, the battle intensified when showers fell in the early morning, forming large plots of mud.
These unusual conditions prompted the coaches from each school to consider whether to continue following the regular course—which included three dirt hills—in regards to safety, or to follow a shortened version which would cut out the trail, restricting the race to asphalt loops to account for this omission.
After a few minutes of discussion, the final decision held firm: the event would follow along the regular course in spite of the large swathes of mud and asphalt slicked from rain.
And through the inclement weather, the Barons held out against the competitions, and achieved satisfactory results on all levels.
On the girls side, the Varsity team placed fifth in their division, falling short of their goal of top three and on to CIF Prelims, yet held a positive outlook for the future.
“The Varsity team had a lot of struggles through the season,” Mariana Chavez (’16) said, who placed second on the squad after coming back into the sport for her first race of the year. “We weren’t on our A-game, but we all did the best we could and we put our efforts into it. [However], next year is going to be our year.”
On the other hand, the JV team achieved their goal of winning their division, and Savannah Bushman (’18) led the frosh-soph team placed a close second behind Los Alamitos by running one of the top performances of the day.
“I held onto Lynn until we hit the big dirt hill, and I always pass people on that hill, so I booked it,” Bushman recalled. “And going down to that hill to that tree over there [By the 2.4 mile mark], she [Bronsyn Ledgard (’18), from Los Alamitos] came up, and then it was like this back-and-forth struggle.”
Bushman pushed past Ledgard, and blazed up the final dirt hill, flew down to the asphalt trail, then after about 200 meters, turned left to sprint 400m to the finish.
“And then everything just blurred at the end of the finish line,” She continued. “I remember hearing that I was ahead of her. I remember Natalie [Grohman] (’15) yelling [that] I was ahead of her, then I was going so fast I though I was going to puke.”
Though Bushman sprinted head-on towards the finish line, Ledgard came up on her left, resulting in a finish so close, the time, 20:09.3, was rounded from the hundredth digit, and with a still-shot, the course directors ruled that Bushman was in 2nd place.
On the boys team, Varsity placed third behind Huntington Beach and Edison high schools, ending their three-year streak of sweeping Finals on all levels.
During the beginning of the race, the pace was relatively easy, with an approximate time of 5:25 for the first mile by the top group, which included Galyn Nash (’15), who placed second at last year’s league finals.
“We ran really really slow because of the mud,” Nash said. “I didn’t fall, [but] going down I was practically walking. We went really really slow for the first mile, we were all just talking .”
Though according to head coach J.D Krawczyk, the reason behind the lax in intensity was largely due to eying the competition rather than wariness of the slick surfaces.
“The conditions didn’t affect that, nobody wanted to take the lead and push the pace,” Krawczyk reported. ” That was the slowest first mile I’ve seen in fifteen years…Everybody was waiting to see what the Huntington Beach guy [George Gleason (’15)] would do.”
After the first mile, Nash and the other top runners picked up the intensity, until they reached the dirt hill before the two-mile mark. There, mud was so slippery and covered nearly all of the uphill and downhill areas, causing many athletes to lose their footing.
“A lot of people fell on the down hill at the two mile mark,” said Krawczyk. ” That was really the only thing, just get back up and start racing.”
Nearing the second mile, Gleason surged ahead with Nash in second, until the last 400 meters, when he turned for the final straightaway into the finish chute, and finished in a close third place behind Thomas Heib (’16) of Los Alamitos by running a time of 15:56.
Not far behind him were William Hua (’16) who ran a 16:33, and Josef Martinez (’15) who ran a 16:37.
“We knew it was extremely tough to beat Edison and Huntington Beach, and the least we needed to do was lock up and go to CIF Finals,” Krawczyk said. “And I think given how young the team is, we have a lot of newcomers in Varsity, [though] they’re pushing the pace very well.”
The boys are excited for CIF-Prelims at Mt. SAC in two weeks, though, as Krawczyk continued, they would have to bring their A-game to place among the top four teams to move on to CIF Finals.
“They have to go out much harder,” Krawczyk said. “[They’ve] Got to score at least a 100 points if they want a chance.”
