Lodi area runners ready to compete
Members of the Lodi girls and Tokay boys cross-country teams found different methods to training this week for the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships today.
Before the squads have also learned some lessons that go beyond high school athletics.
Lodi and Tokay, plus the two Galt runners and the Liberty Ranch boys squad, will make the trek to Willow Hills on the Folsom High campus to compete in the section championships. The Tokay boys are scheduled to run as part of Division I and II teams at 9 a.m. The Lodi girls will run after the boys’ race, also in D-I and II, at 9:25 a.m.
Galt’s two runners in Ethan Reece and Madisen Petersen, along with the Liberty Ranch boys’ squad, will race in the combined D-III through V races. The boys’ race is scheduled at 10 a.m. and the girls’ race at 10:35 a.m.
The varsity, along with the frosh/soph and junior varsity boys and girls’ races, were scheduled to run on Nov. 10, which was the original date of the section championships. But the air quality from the smoke of the Camp Fire from Butte County led to the section postponing the races until today.
Now only the varsity boys and girls’ races will take place. The top two boys’ teams in Divisions I and V and the top three in Divisions II-IV, plus the top three in girls in Divisions I through III and top two in DIV/V advance to the CIF State Cross-Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday, Nov. 24. A maximum of five indivudiuals in each division, and not on team that earned a berth, also earn a berth. The JV and frosh-soph races have been cancelled.
“They were disappointed,” said Lodi coach Greg Wright, “but the kids understood.”
Added Tokay coach Karey Hartey, “Everyone’s hearts sank.”
According to Will DeBoard, the section’s assistant commissioner, today’s races could still be cancelled. It’s also possible that the first race can still take place but the rest are cancelled if the air is deemed unhealthy.
“If the Air Quality Index climbs above 150 (unhealthy range) before any races are run, we will not hold the races,” DeBoard stated in an email press release to the media in the section Wednesday.
Should one, some or all races are cancelled, the email stated, the times from the sub-section meet that took place on Nov. 3 would be used to qualify for the state championships.
The loss of lives and residences in Butte County has put life in perspective for Wright and Harty’s teams.
“One of the older kids, Ruth Hernandez, said that there are people who have lost their homes and lives,” Wright said. “She said ‘if we run that’s great.’”
Harty added, “We started to hear the stories of Paradise and people were out of place out there. They thought of the bigger picture.”
Should the races take place this morning, the Tokay boys scheduled to run are Josue Herrera, who took 22nd at the sub-sections earlier this month at 16 minutes, 57.6 seconds; teammates Homero Dela Cruz, Alek Francovich, Manuel Munoz, Zacariah Kellogg and Jayden Franklin.
Tokay will have one girl competing at today’s meet in sophomore Kari Anema, who ran a 20:12 time at the subsection,
The Lodi girls’ representatives are Pamela Decko, who took 27th at 20:54.3 at the subsection meet, Hernandez, Paris Heiser, Audrey Garcia, Yasmin Melendrez, Frida Rodriguez and Raven Edwards.
For the Lodi boys, Lucas Fonda, who placed 27th overall in the D-I race at 17:08.6, is the lone representative. Fonda is a senior.
Reece iwas the kicker/punter on the school’s varsity football team. He’s also on the Galt boys soccer team. Petersen, who like Reece is a junior, competed at the section championships last year. She
also runs on the Galt girls track and field team.
Liberty Ranch, which is Galt’s second high school, also advances its entire boys’ team. Competing for the Hawks, who took third place in D-IV at the sub-section meet, are Raghav Vadusevan, who had a time of 12:42.3, Sean Nietschke, Spencer Birkes, Timothy Corcoran, Elijah Gonzalez and Cole Ceremony.
Wright and Harty’s teams have trained only once outside this week. But they found alternatives to prepare for this morning’s meet.
Lodi runners worked out inside The Inferno, running on outside lanes of the court while the Lodi boys and girls basketball teams practiced.
“The basketball teams have been great to allow us to run outside of the court,” Wright said. “The kids actually enjoyed it.”
Harty said Fitness Works allowed her runners to practice at its gym by using treadmills.
“We had some fun; they were using hills as training, which prepares us for the hills,” said Harty of the WIllow Hills course that features nearly a half-dozen hills. “They sweat so much in there.”