Cross country opens cautiously
There were a number of openings on Wednesday, the 10th of March for the cross countryteamlast week. Opening of the skies with real weather, first time team travel, and actual competition with another school for the first time in 1.5 years. Here’s coach Chad Raugewitz’ commentary on the meet run at Santa Rosa High School.
“Skies opened up after brief bouts of hail and rain. Great finally competing against another team… kids had to wear a mask for 100 yards and then had the option to leave on or take off. Santa Rosa Panthers handed it us pretty good on both boys and girls squads. Yet I was very pleased with how both squads ran. Next week we start league competition at Elsie Allen High School against them and El Molino High. … hoping this scrimmage meet against santa rosa gets us ready for league action. I think this race taught us that there is more to a xc race than the start/finish. It is in the middle of the race that really counts. Hopefully within the next few weeks our athletes develop and make strides towards improving that middle part which is so important. Yet I am super proud of all who competed. All the runners have been through a lot of uncertainty this season and with the season finally kickin’ off we can just hopefully train and focus like we usually do in a normal season. Big surprise runners this year are
Grason Hargreaves (10th) who has moved up to our #3 spot and also sprinter turned distance runner Kaylee Gaylord (11th) who is our #2 runner on the girls squad.
Final tally for the varsity girls was Santa Rosa: 17, Ukiah 46, and for the girls’ JV’S; it was Santa Rosa- 15, Ukiah- Incomplete. Low score wins.
Final tally for the varsity boys was Santa Rosa: 15, Ukiah 46 and for the goys’s JV’S: it was Santa Rosa- 15, Ukiah- 50.
For the boys on the SRHS course, measuring 2.73 miles:
First Place-sr- Andrew Mckaney- senior- 14:38 minutes (Santa Rosa took places- 2-5). 6th placeukiahNathan Gibsonsoph-16:11 7th Ukiah- Caleb Mucho-senior- 16:20 13th. Ukiah- Grason hargreaves-soph17:34 14th. Ukiah- Ivan Rubio- senior1i7:35 15th. Ukiah- Waler Raugewitz- senior- 18:01
For the girls on the same course.
First Place- SR- Alexandra Van Holt- soph- 19:19 (SR took places 2,3,4,6,7 Fourth place- Ukiah- Kianna Ruffin- junior- 19:48 8th- Kaylee Gaylord- Junior12:21 9th- Amanda Mucho-soph- 21:22 10- Lillie Losak- 22:44
Coach Raugewitz’s account of double victory over El Molino and Elsie Allen on March 17, 2021
“First time UHS had competed at Elsie Allen High School home course since the days of Paul Holden and Noah Taxis. Ukiah followed the step by scoring a double victory over El Molino and Ellsie Allen. In the boys race 10th grader Nathan Gibson raced to his first ever Varsity xc victory
by keeping the 2nd place El Molino runner on his heels. His time of 14:33 on the flat and fast 2.6 mile course was around the school’s campus. Caleb Mucho and Zac Koball also ran strong races crossing the finish line together in 3rd and 4th place. Walker Raugewitz also led the field by finishing 6th overall. “As an entire squad I was extremely impressed with how the boys raced today. The team goal was to improve their mile pace by over 15 seconds from last week’s race at Santa Rosa. Out of 17 guys 15 of them completed that task. I have enjoyed training this team because it has a lot of depth and not much
disparity from our 5th to 10th runner. The boys squad showed this depth by placing 10 runners ahead of the El Molino squad. On the girls side improvement was again the norm. Kianna Ruffin was the first female who finished: 3rd overall and newcomer Kaylee Gaylord was not far behind taking 5th place. Ed Nieves and I could not be prouder of the girls squad. Actually our top 4 girls would make up a real strong 4 X 400 relay team and they are out here showing their athletic versatility racing longer distances. Both squads have big challenges next Wednesday. First they must compete against Redwood division leaders Healdsburg and Analy High. And secondly they must run and conquer our infamous home course which rarely sees any action in the winter time. Sounds like a good ol muddy mess to me. Better tighten those laces and bring two pairs of socks. Good luck girls and boys xc squads on Wednesday, March 24th at UHS.”