Rosanne and Charlie Shine; Christy Remains Undefeated

Sat, Sep 15th - The Lions woke early for the second week in a row to load the vans to travel to a meet. This week the destination was Irvine for the Woodbridge Invitational. This was only the second time in as many years that OC has participated in the WI.

The freshmen girls set the tone for the day, and the future, with a fantastic team performance in the frosh race. As a team they placed 3rd behind two division 3 schools in a field of 47 schools. Christy Garcia remains undefeated in her high school career with another victory. She finished in a time of 18:38 ranking her #2 in OC history overall and OC frosh record holder at the WI. Brittani Gardella (20:54) and Esther McFaden (21:44) made their debuts for OC cross country. Niki MacWhirter (21:47) and Kirsten Temanson (24:24) followed. Jackie Brody (24:54) completed the freshmen group with her debut performance.

In the girls varsity race OC was led by Samantha Roesler (19:42), Emily Fuld (19:52) who recorded the largest individual improvement for an OC runner with a 3 minute 21 second PR, Morgan Temanson (20:12) and Tina Boskovich (20:17). Catherine Price was the final scorer (21:44) and Jennifer Philen (24:33) completed the team effort. The girls placed 9th as a team. Had Roseanne and Christy raced with the GV the team would have placed 2nd behind a division 2 school.

The freshmen boys race fielded John Gonzales (18:43) and Devin Long (20:56). Sophomore Kevin Sutman (22:56) ran solo in his grade race posting a 1 minute 39 second personal best. Junior boys included Nick Matra (19:08), Anders Reimer (19:40) and Shane Tayloe (21:54). And the senior boys were David Goeser (18:25) and Greg Sadler (18:44).

After the morning session the teams went to lunch and then drove home while the coaches waited and waited and waited...six hours for the afternoon session which would include the boys varsity and Roseanne. After a good nap and an early dinner the late van caught up with the coaches.

In the dark cool night under the lights, Roseanne toed the line of the Girls Rated race. The rated races were a collection of top schools from all divisions and quickly formed into a championship race with championship tactics. Roseanne demonstrated her maturing experience by patiently waiting for her opportunity to strike. With about 12oom to the finish RJ pushed the pace and stretched the led group making it a two person battle to the finish. Rosie was eclipsed at the line 17:31-17:32 placing second overall. This was a lifetime best for her on any three mile course and the fastest performance by any OC girl at Woodbridge Invitational.

About two and a half minutes prior to Roseanne's finish the gun sounded for the Boys Rated race. The boys remained collected under a hot paced opening mile. Then they attacked working their way through the ranks of the field comprised exceptional teams from mostly large schools. Charlie Petrie was the swiftest pulling away rapidly and finishing in a all time fastest OC performance on any three mile course (15:13) and 51 second improvement at the WI. Ethan Long (15:31) slashed 46 seconds from his best. Hunter Hays (15:55) completed the the sub-16 trio. The first three athletes in OC history to eclipse the barrier. Rafael Garcia (16:12) improving 58 seconds (the most of all OC varsity boys), Mike Colarossi (16:20) improving 28 seconds and Nick Colarossi (17:23) rounded out the team performance.

There is no race this week and the following week will feature the first Tri-Valley League meet of the season and the Stanford Invitational Weekend .