Big Wins for Boys and Girls Cross Country Squads

Cross Country Head Coach George Green checks in with a report on his squad’s week of competition. "Last year the CHS Boys Cross Country Team won the Central League championship by defeating rival Clairemont by a single point. In invitational meets both teams have entered this year, Clairemont has come out on top, but not by much.

Both teams ran in the Saints Small School Invitational. If the event was scored as a dual meet, Clairemont would have won by four points. The situation wasn’t as bleak as it seemed, however, because in all of the meets we had in common, at least one of the Islander runners had a bad race.

Each team has three pretty good runners up front, but Clairemont’s top guy, Bernardo Bahena was last year’s Central League champion and is even faster this year. Clairemont’s weakness is a big gap after their third runner. Coronado has a gap as well, although not as large as that of the Chieftains’.

Clairemont’s strategy was for Bahena to hang back to help place their second and third runners between our top two and hope their fourth and fifth runners could defeat our fourth and fifth runners. That’s how the race played out.

For the first two miles, Behena paced his teammates, with the Islanders top three runners Ben Enowitz, Michael Davies and David Grimes matching them stride for stride in a tight six-runner pack. After passing the two-mile point in a little under 11 minutes, the pace began to tell and Bahena had to abandon his pack to stay in front of the Coronado trio. Bahena won in 16:39 over the Morley Field three-mile course. Enowitz, Grimes, and Davies were all close behind with times of 16:47, 16:57 and 16:58.

The Islander ‘backup singers’ didn’t disappoint either. Jose Tijerina finished seventh with a time of 18:45, followed by Cotter Stacy (eighth in 18:53), Ben Green (ninth in 18:56), and Turner Stanley (11th in 19:07) to round out the varsity finishers. Freshman Kevin Siefert was close behind (12th in 19:09) and will run on the varsity team at the CIF Finals because Green will be out of town that day.

The final score was 24-34 in favor of the Islanders. I think the unexpectedly large margin of victory can be attributed to the intimidating body paint worn by the Islander crew. Green was especially formidable, but he was disappointed when it was pointed out that CIF rules require that he wear his singlet while racing.

Although it won’t be official until next week when we run against Madison (1-2) and Crawford (0-3), this meet determined the Boys Central League championship, like déjà vu all over again.

Since the outcome of the girls match-up was pretty much in the bag, Coronado frosh Sallie Privett used this race as a fast-tempo training run. She crossed the finish line in 18:17 over the same 3-mile course run by the boys, and was only six seconds off the girls course record. Adrianna Davies was second in 20:38, followed by Coco O’Brien (fourth in 21:47), Sheila Braun (sixth), Helen Luppi (ninth), Lindsay Pettee (10th), Sarah Player (12th) and Brigid Twomey (13th).

The final score was 22-34 and, like the boys, the girls record is now 2-0 with Crawford (0-3) and Madison (2-1) remaining on the schedule. This meet will be conducted as a double-dual meet next Thursday and is the final hurdle toward a league title for Coronado. Although Coronado has the best front runners, Madison has better depth. Because Madison lost to Christian by only six points, and Coronado won over Christian by only one point, the Warhawks can’t be taken lightly. Crawford won’t be an issue, as Madison placed their top six runners in front of Crawford’s first in their dual meet."