Tam, Redwood runners headline state qualifiers
“We had to make a very specific plan to qualify for state and they executed it. It was a physically exhausting but well-executed race. Just a lot of grit out there today. We’re looking forward to feeling good next week.”
— Robyn Berry,
Archie Williams coach.
Tam High’s Caden Carney kicked off the North Coast Section Meet of Champions in the best way possible. Not to be outdone, his top rival within the MCAL — Redwood’s Daegan Cutter — also had a banner day.
Carney and Cutter both won races as individuals to headline the Marin contingent on Saturday. The boys team from Archie Williams and the girls teams from Tam, Branson, Redwood and Marin Academy also punched their tickets to the State Meet.
Running in the first race of the day at Hayward High on Saturday, Carney completed the 3-mile course in 15 minutes, 1 seconds to win the Division III boys race and qualify for next weekend’s State Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Carney finished 18 seconds faster then the rest of the D-III field in securing his spot at State and was the fastest runner across all divisions. Tam placed fifth as a team with 171 points. Campolindo won with 49 points.
Cutter’s race started three hours later but the end result was the same. Cutter finished in 15:22.9 to edge Granada’s Roland Ruckmann-Barnes (15:23.6) for first place.
“With Daegan, he just had that confidence from the win at (the Mariner Invitational,” Redwood coach Nykky Graydon said. “So he wanted to run a similar race. … Daegan was able to hold (Ruckmann-Barnes) off at the hill and through the finish.”
Cutter had the sixth best time of the day across all divisions.
Redwood placed sixth as a team with 190 points while Granada took first with 37 points.
The Archie Williams boys team ran in the second race of the day, boys D-IV, with the top seven runners in placing inside the top 30 to finish in second and qualify for State.
Nate Wolford led the way for the Peregrine Falcons again, as he did at MCALs last week, finishing in 13th place with a time of 16:16.6. Three of the next seven runners to cross the line were from Archie Williams — Evan Lee (15th), Jonah Grubbs (16th), and Eric Overaa (20th).
Luke Calegari took 25th as the fifth Archie Williams runner to finish but was followed closely by Ryan Wilcox (29th) and Ryan Ferguson (30th).
“The top runners on AWHS were out sick this week,” Archie Williams coach Robyn Berry said via text. “I didn’t see the top two runners all week. We had to make a very specific plan to qualify for state and they executed it. It was a physically exhausting but well-executed race. Just a lot of grit out there today. We’re looking forward to feeling good next week.”
The Tam girls, competing in D-III, managed a second-place team finish on the strength of placing three runners inside the top 10 — Emma Dunmire (fourth), Emma Gardner (eighth), and Briana McInnis (ninth) — and a fourth inside the top 20 in Ellery Barnes (18th). Dunmire had the 10th best time of any girl on Saturday.
The Redwood girls team was also dealing with some illness within the team — the usual four through six runners were all under the weather — so the Giants leaned heavily on their top three harriers.
All three finished inside the top 10 to help the team qualify for State. Audrey MacLean, fresh off winning MCALs, placed second in the D-II race in 17:56.4 — the sixth fastest time across all divisions. Hailey Connery placed seventh in D-IV and Helena Janku finished in ninth.
Sofia Nogieiro (30th) and Marley Nacco (36th) were the fourth and fifth Redwood runners to finish. Those results left the Giants tied for second on points (84) with Monte Vista. The Mustangs took second and the Giants third on the strength of the sixth-place tiebreaker. Tawny Strotz — who Graydon said “ran the race of her life” — was the sixth Redwood runner to finish, coming in 41st.
The Branson girls, running in D-V, claimed a state berth by placing fourth and were led by Branson’s Adeline Johnson and Sage Sanderson — third and fourth in D-V as individuals, respectively. Marin Academy took sixth and was led by Chiara Savage Schwartz in 17th place.
Other standouts who are headed to the State Meet include Marin Catholic’s Audrey Carr (seventh in the D-IV race), Redwood’s Ethan Werner (15th, D-II boys), and Branson’s Henry Houser (ninth, D-V boys).