The Girls Cross Country Team lost to Christian by one point last Wednesday in a dual meet at Lindo Lake that could have gone either way, up to the last runner. In a time span of only 41 seconds, four Coronado and four Christian girls crossed the finish line, led by Islander Marissa Nagler with a time of 15:00 over the 2.15-mile girls’ course.

Karolin Ivarsson was third in 15:08, followed by Sheila Braun (sixth in 15:13), Anneke Nelson (eighth in 14:41), Sarah Player (10th in 16:19), Allison Cabana (12th in 16:56) and Helen Luppi (13th in 16:59). This was a meet we would have won had we been at full strength. We were missing a couple of key girls due to injury and schedule conflicts.

The loss drops the Islander girls to a record of 2-1 with only one meet with Crawford Nov. 2 remaining on the regular season schedule. Crawford, Madison and Clairemont all have 1-2 records, but the latter two have stronger teams than their records reflect. They have also had scheduling conflicts and illness among their ranks.

Christian had a bye week last week and stands at 2-0 with tough meets with both Clairemont and Madison coming up. The bottom line is that the Central League (formerly the Harbor League) team champion for girls won’t be clinched until the final meet of the season, and Coronado is still very much in the running (Ed. Note – I’m hoping that wasn’t a pun).

The Boys Cross Country Team won easily by the score of 17-44 to extend their record to 3-0. Ben Enowitz led the Islander procession in 18:07 over the 3.1-mile boy’s course. He was followed by Michael Davies (second in 18:23), Jack Harms (third in 18:55); David Grimes (fifth in 19:08), Andrew Falkiewicz (sixth in 19:36), Jose Tijerina (eighth in 19:44) Cotter Stacy (ninth in 19:51), Ben Green (17th), Gonzalo Arozarena (20th), Ross Palmer (21st) and Scott Wittry (24th). Barring injury, the Islanders should clinch the Central League championship in their meet with Crawford Nov. 2.

Friday the Boys Varsity squad ran in the High School Division IV races at the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Cross Country Invitational. With 16,000 registered runners, this series of races is one of the largest in the world and features three tough hills over a course just shy of 3 miles. Coronado placed seventh out of the 25 schools in their race, with Enowitz taking fifth with a time of 16:54. He was followed by Davies (27th in 18:12); Grimes (51st in 18:49), Falkiewicz (62nd in 19:07), Tijerina (70th in 19:14), Harms and Stacy.

In CMS action Sunday, eighth grader Sallie Privett stood on the podium at the Arturo Barrios Invitational with some pretty fast (and famous) company. Her time of 18:30 for the 5K (3.1-mile) course was fast enough to place her third overall in the women’s division of the People’s Race behind UCLA’s best cross country runner, senior Jenna Timinsky and Germany’s Uta Pippig, who once held the indoor world record for the 5K and was a three time winner of the Boston Marathon (1994-96). Of course Sallie also won the 13-17 age division, as well as running shoes and a lot of hardware.