Tuolumne County runners show out at Sac-joaquin subsection meet
The entirety of the SacJoaquin Section descended upon, or rather ascended to, Angels Camp Saturday morning for the all-comers sub-section cross country meet — the qualifying race for the section championships at the Willow Hills cross country course in Folsom on Nov. 12.
Tuolumne County was represented by full girls’ and boys’ teams from Summerville, as well as Sonora High School sophomore star Broen Holman.
Holman finished first in the Division IV race, while Summerville’s Cruz Vasquez finished fifth. Summerville’s Arianna Martinez led the Bears with a ninth-place finish to help the girls qualify for the section championships.
Fresh off a Mother Lode League title win at Amador in a time of 15:18.15, Holman entered the race with the fastest 3-mile best in the section across all divisions with a time of 14:17.9, set at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic on Sept. 16.
In the Division IV boys race Saturday morning, Holman lived up to expectations with a dominant win in a time of 14:39.5. He beat the second-place finisher, senior Jacob Moffett of St. Mary’s, by more than 30 seconds.
“I felt really good, I felt super smooth today,” Holman said. “Especially towards the end, when it starts to run a lot harder, I pushed myself.”
Holman’s time was also the fastest of the day across all five divisions, beating out friend and Division I competitor Ryan Mitchell, of Davis High School, by nearly 30 seconds. Mitchell holds the fastest 5,000-meter time in the section at 15:04.2.
Unlike previous races, in which Holman would hang around the front pack of a race before making a decisive move late in the second or third miles, Holman raced from the front the entire race, pulling away from the pack alongside Moffett and losing him on the first big hill near the 1-mile mark.
“I was going to just stay with them a little bit from the beginning, but then once one person was staying with me for a while, I just decided to not make it close at all,” Holman said. “I didn’t want to mess around at all and I took it from there. I started to see if I could make a gap, see how easy it would be for me to break him a little bit or take off from him.”
Holman’s different approach to this race was as much about the higher level of competition in the race as it was about his lack of knowledge about the competition, he said.
“Most people were new, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go or if anyone was going to be close,” Holman said.
With rain on the forecast, officials made the decision to switch to the “rain course,” a version of the Calaveras Fairgrounds course which excludes some particularly hilly and dusty segments near the back of the fairgrounds.
Runners and coaches said they believed the rain course is both shorter and less difficult, leading to faster times.
“I think it makes it way easier,” Holman said. “Those hills out there are tough — they are steep, up and down.”
Not to be outdone, Summerville’s Vasquez raced
himself into fifth place in a time of 16:05.2. Vasquez said he has been dealing with an illness for almost a month now, and raced with a fever at last week’s MLL championships, where he took second.
“I felt pretty rough going into this — I haven’t ran in a week due to sickness,” Vasquez said. “I kind of felt a little flat, not really sharp, but once I got going it was like, ‘you have been here before, you know what to do.’
“I really went out conservative because of all the circumstances I was going through, but then I realized we were pretty close to the end of the race. I was feeling pretty good with about a half mile to go, so I took them on that hill on the back stretch.”
Given his condition, Vasquez said he was content with the performance but is hoping to keep improving as he moves through the postseason racing schedule.
“I was glad I could run threshold pace off of not running for a week on these hills,” Vasquez said. “I’m looking forward to getting a week of training in, getting sharp again, getting my body used to running again and getting after it next Saturday.”
Summerville boys fall just short
A week after winning their MLL championship, the Summerville boys fell just short of qualifying as a team for the section championships in Folsom, finishing 11th out of 23 teams with a total score of 241.
It was a heartbreaker for the Bears, as 10th-place Hilmar beat out the Bears for the last qualifying spot by only 4 points with 237.
The Bears moved three freshmen up to varsity for the race, according to Summerville head coach Chris Vasquez, including Ryden River, Merrick Harden and Ray Shopp.
Chris Vasquez said he was proud of his young team in spite of coming up short.
“They definitely rallied for each other,” Chris Vasquez said. “They didn’t surprise me at all, but I think they are finally believing what I have been telling them and they finally reaped what they sowed today.
“I don’t want to say it was a surprise, but I think it was a reaffirmation of training through sickness, trusting your fitness and really running for each other.”
Summerville girls to compete for section title
The Summerville girls team qualified for the section championships Saturday, finishing eighth out of 14 teams with a total score of 194 and an average time of 22:39.
The Bears were led by junior Martinez, who finished ninth in the race in a time of 19:50.4. Martinez’ mark would have been good enough to qualify her for the section championships on her own, but big races by the Bears all the way down the roster helped the team qualify together.
Summerville’s second runner, senior Sarah Acevedo, had yet another big race to finish 24th in a time of 21:02.2.
With a bug floating around the Summerville team, Chris Vasquez said he had to alter their normal training routine leading up to the race to give his runners time to recover. That, and foul weather, stunted the team’s ability to prepare.
“Our preparation for sub-sections changed dramatically because of sickness and weather,” Chris Vasquez said. “One day we had lightning and thunder, (so) we couldn’t train that day. We didn’t train that day at all — practice was canceled as we were running. Before that and ever after, sickness has picked us off one by one to the point that now, both the men’s and women’s team has it.”
Competing on the rain course likely aided Summerville’s runners, Chris Vasquez said, who might otherwise have struggled dealing with the steep hills of the normal course.
“I think it helped that we were on the rain course today, which is flatter. I think they were able to stay aerobic, instead of anaerobic (because of) the hills,” Chris Vasquez said. “They are already fit, so when they were sick they could still rely on their fitness and trust their fitness so that even on a bad day they could pull through it.”
With the girls team headed to the section championship meet alongside Vasquez, Chris Vasquez said the team will focus on getting healthy and sharp for a competitive meet.
“It’s always really hard to move on as an individual, I think it’s the top-6 for individual for Division IV,” Chris Vasquez said. “You only hope that the top Division IV guys that are finishing are with a team so you can bring in some more individuals.”
“We definitely are not taking anything for granted. We are going to keep grinding away, but sometimes we need to just give them rest, too,” he added. “Everything is going to have to hit just perfect.”
Holman, Cruz Vasquez and the Summerville girls cross country team will travel to Folsom to race at the CIF Sac-joaquin Section Cross Country Championships this Saturday, Nov. 12.